Unglued

source: Family Christian

My mom passed this book along to me, probably after spending hours with me and my kids, for those moments when you become unglued.  Which honestly I feel like is a lot of the time.  I've read through about 1/3 of the book so far and love Lysa's honest accounts of her personal life.  Who really wants to admit that they have a short fuse and yell at their kids and husband? 

I admit it because I do have a short fuse and am quick to shout and yell.  Everyone in my family can attest to this.  I think I've yelled at everyone at one point or another:)  Of course there are more productive ways to handle a situation.  Like not screaming at everyone when you reach your breaking point.  I have not gotten to the part of the book where she gives her insight to this.  I basically read and nodded my head the whole time and figured out I am an "exploder who blames others."

This can be described as someone who talks and/or yells because someone else did something to not listen to you.  Here is an example from my personal life...

While reading with Brendan (I mean just minutes after I figured out the above) he starts getting fidgety and restless.  I take a few deep breaths and ask him calmly to stop and continue reading.  He does for a moment and then starts talking in weird voices, becoming distracted, and goofing around.
(Just reading this now makes me see how I should have just stopped and said, "Brendan lets just read this later.")
I ask him again to stop (still calmly) and he starts repeating me and laughing. 
(I can feel inside the tension building and where I justify yelling.  If he would just listen I wouldn't have to yell.)
 So I start getting frustrated and shout out, "Just go to your room if you're going to act like this.  I'm trying to help you and you're not listening!"
(Total feeling of defeat...Lysa shared she felt like this MANY times! So it is okay.  I mean Rome wasn't built in a day.)
Brendan ran down to his room crying and shouting because yet again I raised my voice and blamed him. 

Not my finest moment by far and yet again I felt overwhelmed and angry at myself for getting wrapped up in my emotions.  Lysa also shares a steady stream of Bible verses and stories in her book which I find so helpful.  Maybe just taking that extra moment before I shout to ask for God's help would calm me down enough to see the situation clearly.

People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue.  It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison.  James 3:7-8 NLT

*I'm going to keep updated my progress and thoughts while I read this book.  She also blogs at www.LysaTerKeurst.com  which I'm going to check out.  I haven't yet.*