Shower (or Not Shower) Success

Wow - two success stories in a row, and this one maybe even better that the last.

So, it was evening, several nights ago.  Don't remember exactly when, because I didn't post right away.  (and I've slept since then)  Anyway, it was a night when I wanted to do something special with the girls.  I've been working on having more family time in the evenings - we had gotten into a bad habit of just watching TV at night.  I needed them to take a shower, so I sent them up to do that.  I told them that because I wanted to have some family time, I would come up in about 20 minutes to tell them to get out of the shower and dry off.  It seemed a good plan at the time.

So, I hear them go upstairs, then heard some giggling and some laughing, which is normal when they are taking a shower together.  I guess I wasn't paying enough attention...  After their 20 minutes was up, up the steps I went to tell them to rinse off and get out, only to find... wait for it... they were still sitting on the floor in the bathroom, dry as a bone.  They never even turned the water on!

So, here came my moment.  How would I respond?  I felt the anger a frustration building on the inside - my plans for the evening, gone.  My girls had disobeyed me.  I should get mad and punish them, right?  [remember, I'm both a dad, which means I tend to be "discipline first," and I am an engineer, which means that I tend to be "rule-oriented," so this is my natural response].  My frustration wanted me to start the discipline right there, and so I started getting my "you're in trouble" voice ready.  But then...

I started thinking about what had really happened.  My girls obviously had tons of fun playing together, which is kind of the goal of family night.  Yes, I had been excluded from the fun, but I had enjoyed hearing them laugh.  Yes, they had not yet taken a shower, but there was still time before bed.  Yes, they spent the last 20 minutes naked on the bathroom floor - certainly not an ideal playspace - but they were about to take a shower, and that floor gets cleaned... um... at least once a month, right?

So I put aside the anger and frustration.  Let me be clear - it did not go away on its own.  I still felt frustrated, but I chose to act like everything was fine.  In fact, I did this by causing myself to laugh.  Again, for clarity - I did not feel like laughing, but I did it anyway.  Instead of my "you're in trouble" voice, I pulled out my "pretending to be mad" voice.  It make them laugh.  Lots.  Their laughter became infectious, and I began to laugh in truth.

We were still laughing about it at bedtime.  Zoe kept repeating my "pretending to be mad" voice all evening.  We made a memory, and I got to write about it as a success.

Jesus, please continue to help me choose how I act, instead of letting my feelings dictate my actions.  Amen.