Children

Parenting is definitely not for sissies.  I am by no means a perfect parent and I often lose my cool with my children....

Especially with this little princess.  She is hilarious, precious, smart, and very strong-willed.  Tonight she was over the moon excited about her swim lessons.  She had on her new suit, her new goggles and she even got dressed hours before the big event. 

She happily played in the water before the class until the teacher and other students arrived.  She then retreated into her own little shy shell and would not participate AT ALL.  I got so frustrated with her until I remembered that this is how God made her.  She is shy and painfully slow to warm up to new situations and people.  Her teacher was a kind, younger guy and she even had a sweet preschool girlfriend in the class with her.  Sigh.  She did rock her new "swim team" bathing suit and goggles:)

 

Sweet Kyle even tried to coax her when he finished up swim team practice but he didn't make much progress either.  I might let her Daddy take her Wednesday and see if she does better for him.  She loves the water and loves swimming, but her shyness held her back.

 

All three of my children are very different and require different things out of me.  I have come to realize in my decade of parenting that first and foremost my children need my time and love, but more importantly my prayers.  I have felt so burdened to pray specifically for my children lately.  This world is complex and very different from the world that I grew up in.  I desperately want children that use their strong will to stand up for righteousness and that they will do the right thing always. 

 

Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

 

I pray that my children will seek the right thing always.  We have started having  peer pressure conversations with Kyle so he understands what we expect from him.  Our children do not have a long "leash" and I expect that will never change.  Mike and I were talking yesterday about how hard it is to find a balance between freedom and protection.  We do not want to protect too much that they do not learn how to handle freedom appropriately and then later down the road they go wild! 

 

Parenting is certainly not for the faint-hearted, but I have been enjoying some scripture on child-rearing and if I shower my children with love, time, and prayer, I cannot go wrong.