Looking in the mirror

I witnessed a horrifying experience yesterday while shopping. It was a stressed out mom. A mom who needed a break. You know you're overloaded when you scream at your child in a quiet store. I heard her hand hitting his bottom, him screaming and then her screaming words like "YOU ALWAYS DO THIS TO ME WHEN WE GO OUT! STOP IT!" And the words continued. I watched as all the shoppers looked uncomfortable as we all heard the screaming for several minutes straight. With tears threatening to spill out and a horrible feeling in my gut, I stood there and tried to ignore this mother who was essentially verbally abusing her child in public. He couldn't have been more than 4 years old. I'm sure he was just being a little boy. I have two of them! Shopping is not their thing. I have to mentally prepare myself to take them with me because it can be frustrating. What I know is that this mom needed support, help, and encouragment. It was easy for me to judge her in this one situation. I can assume that maybe she was letting him off easy while they were in public. What was his home life like? Or maybe she has been under so much pressure this was just one incident that she will regret for a long time. I don't know, but I heard the Lord whisper to my heart that there are times I allow myself to get this frazzled. I've done it while at home. I've yelled at my kids with the same intensity and later wondered why I allow myself to get like that. I think all of us moms have been there. You don't realize how bad it is until you see it happening to someone else. It is my prayer that I allow the Lord to refresh me daily, to give me the love and patience that I need daily. Being a mom is a hard job and we've got an enemy hard at work to distract and frustrate us.

I will never forget this experience. I will never forget how painful it was to watch and hear this interaction between a mother and son and I pray that I never let myself get so beaten down that I take the stresses of life out on my children.