Oh... Boys...

How many times must a boy get hurt before he learns he shouldn't try and stand up on chairs to leave the table, or he shouldn't do somersaults on the banana rocking chair, or be rocking back and forth and twisting on a dining room chair that isn't suppose to rock?
I am trying a new loving tactic this week (yes all of these incidents have happened in the last week- in fact, the last couple days). When Elijah gets hurt(physically or emotionally) I usually give him a lecture on why he shouldn't do that something. Last week was a rough one for him and Brian gave me some insight that made me look at everything in a new light. So this week I am trying to extend my patience and love first and foremost without a lecture. So when something happens I have had to bite my tongue and think about my actions instead of reacting in my normal way.
For the times that he has hit his head and he's down on the ground I go up to him and rub his back and say "I'm sorry you got hurt" to let him know that I love him. But today when I saw him standing up on the side edge of the chair to apparently leave the table- after we had just had the conversation about one of the reasons why we treat furniture right is so we don't get hurt- I had a hard time biting my tongue... in fact I didn't really bite it. BECAUSE I was washing the dishes and I turned to see him standing on the chair. The following phrase (which I never thought I would hear myself say) came out of my mouth "Elijah what are you thin- (crash he goes down hard) ...king". I had such a hard time finding compassion to hold my actions so my instinct came out and I lectured him... it was a short lecture... but of course he wanted to argue so I decided to drop it and just said, "I'm sorry you got hurt but... yeah, I'm sorry." I paused because I wanted to say "but I have a hard time finding sympathy for someone who wasn't thinking about what he was doing. ESPECIALLY when we just had a talk about treating furniture right". BUT that was when I gained control and held my tongue and just said, "I'm sorry." and went back to do the dishes.

The point of telling this is not to "tell on" Elijah. He's a boy and he's 8. Things like this are going to happen. The point of this is to say... I held my tongue! In the hardest moment I pulled myself together and didn't lecture...well... too much.