2 Ain't Got Nothing on 3

When you think about it 2 ain't got nothing on 3. I mean really. There's:

• the 3 Muskateers, 
• Neapolitan Iceream from Bluebell (a delightful combination of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry!), 
• a TV show My 3 Sons (which must have been decent since everybody and their mom has mentioned it to me - never heard of it), 
• The 3 Ninjas (Rocky, Colt and TumTum "Rocky loves Emily"), 

• "a cord of three strands" -Ecclesiastic 4:12, 
• The Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit), 
• and now of course I have 3 little boys (Jude, Shiloh and Asher). 

I'm sure if I thought long enough I could come up with more examples of the awesomeness of 3. But I can tell you one thing that is not awesome: the age 3! Really 2 you think you were bad? Not in comparison to 3. Terrible 2 I laugh at you because you ain't got nothing on 3. Terrifying 3.

Jude's attitude is terrifying! I mean he is soooooo whiny (where did I put that video "Wendy and the Whine"?). And He throws terrible tantrums. We go from delightful conversation to screaming, crying, running away, locking himself in that bathroom (which I can easily unlock - thanks fire inspection for foster care enlightening me and making me prepared), hitting me (that never ends well for him), etc. It's awful! I think some of it comes from him wanting to be independent and learning his boundaries and being incapable of controlling his emotions when things don't go the way he desires. We are working on appropriate responses and such but dealing with this 3 year old is exhausting.

Though it makes me think of how I have many years on him and sometimes I can't control my temper. Especially lately I've been flying off the handle. It's very frustrating because I know better but I still act out with yelling or slamming a door really you might think I was 3. And after all of my little outburst I immediately think of James 1:19-21 "...everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry because mans anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires..." oh why did I memorize this in high school - I blame you Jennifer and Kevin. And then the guilt trip starts and I want to fall into despair and beat myself up.

But I want to combat this guilt trip. Guilt is not good - conviction is. I should feel convicted and that is good if it makes me run to Jesus and repent (which is to say turn away from my sin). 2 Corintians 7:10-11 teaches us that godly grief (conviction) produces repentance whereas world grief (guilt or feeling bad cause you got caught, etc.) gets you death. What's the difference? Well Dr. Woo (my former professor at HBU and pastor at Wilcrest Baptist Church) used to preach a sermon entitled the "7 Marks of Repentance" from this text and I could spend quite some time here but my children are going crazy so I'll be short - basically you realize you have wronged God and you never ever want to wrong him in that way again so much so that what you did disgusts you and then you want to make that wrong right (like Zaccheaus did Luke 19).

That is where I'm at. My anger that is causing these temper tantrums are offensive to God and I don't want to continue offending him but I need help. I need Jesus to change my heart and take away this anger that keeps rising in me because I can't but he can. I love Jesus because when I mess up I can go to him and he is my power and strength to not keep messing up.

So if you think of me say a little prayer that I keep running to Jesus and that my 3 children will not drive me insane!