Patience- My New Year Resolution

With the new year coming up, it got me thinking.  Now is a great time for some resolutions.  I’m so far from perfect, it wasn’t hard to think of about a million things I want to change about myself, but if I have to narrow it down to just a one, it’s

PATIENCE

Taking care of three boys ages 4 and below is sooo hard.  Add super over-tired Mommy to the mix and it’s a complete disaster.  So the one thing that I MUST work on this year is being more patient with my children.

It doesn’t matter if I’m so tired I can barely hold my head up and the two older ones are opening my china closet and touching my delicate, expensive glasses while I am nursing the baby and they are laughing as the steam comes out of my ears.  It doesn’t matter.  They still deserve a loving mommy who is calm enough to discipline calmly.

This one will be hard, but I have to work on it.  Here’s my plan of attack:

Close my eyes, take a deep breath and count to ten.  Then smile.

I know… as I’m typing this I realize that this is what you tell a child to do, but I know it’ll work for me too.

During the Aseres Y’mei Teshuva, one of the tefilos we are constantly repeating are the 13 Middos of Hashem.  What better way to emulate our creator than to mimic the way He responds to His children when they sin?

I found a fabulous (free) booklet on the 13 Middos of Hashem and how we can apply each one to ourselves in a practical way.  I’ve already printed mine out to read and focus on over Rosh Hashana.

I’m assuming that a 3-day yom tov is exactly what I’ll need to “practice” patience 🙂

What are your resolutions this year?

 

Until next time,
Shaindy