Wednesday, August 1

Parenting is Hard. Teaching Moments.

Sometimes parenting is just hard. Plain ole hard. And my oldest is only 6. It is sometimes just h.a.r.d. We have hit a rough patch with my oldest. Most days I just sit back baffled with no idea on how to correct or fix things. All I can do is PRAY and ask God to show my creative ways to parent and discipline him. And how to redirect his decisions that reflect holiness. We are struggling with major attitude, lying, back talking, snatching, hitting, emotional breakdowns and sneaking out...yes! sneaking out!!! Not sneaking out like you are probably imagining. Lately, when my oldest is put in time out, he sneaks out of his room. He learned from an early age (3 to be exact) how to unlock the windows in the house and pop out the screen to escape. Its quite alarming. Two days ago, after being sent to his room for not being able to control his hands (they often go flying into the ribs or belly of the littles... this is NOT ok) he was banned from hanging out with his siblings and had to spend the rest of the day in his room. About 30 minutes passed and as I looked up from my kitchen sink, I see both him and Beckham IN THE BACK YARD!!!!!

Phillip's sister Jessica (who has been living with us this month) and my sweet friend Blair were over and witnessed the whole thing. We were all pretty stunned. Right now,  I am thanking God for sending people to my house everyday. When there are people over, you feel a bit convicted about being that crazy screaming psycho mom!!!

We have entered another battle, a spiritual battle. I feel strongly that the enemy wants to tear down this next generation. He wants to devour them and set them off track. He is trying to deceive them and lie to them. I am willing to fight. To fight for the salvation of my littles. Christ has already overcome. We are claiming His victory in all battles. Even in parenting battles. We are praying circles around our children and their friends.

Right now, parenting Parker is hard. We are trying to teach him about Sin and about what it means to be Rebellious and Sinful. He is not quite getting the Sin issue. When you ask him why he says or does certain things, he says someone else made him do it. He isn't quite recognizing his own fault...or maybe he is and he is battling pride...  I don't really know. I pray daily that the Lord will soften his heart. That He will begin to whisper truth into his spirit. Parker has a HUGH heart. He really is full of LOVE, COMPASSION & SYMPATHY for those in need. He is tender and doesn't like to see anyone left behind. He hurts when he sees injustice. He gets tearful when hearing stories of orphans and children living on the streets or of people who are in need. He is concerned for people who have little. Like just the other night... Jessica and I were getting ready to serve some of the members of our church at our church picnic and Parker wanted to come and help!

He said
  "Mom, I want to help serve the people tonight because what if when I am an adult too and I want to serve people who don't have food, then I will know how to!" 

Oh. My. Heart. He has a heart to serve. To love. He is just caught in the middle of a battle between "flesh and spirit".

We have these moments. These sweet intimate moments with Parker. And then we have moments when he is telling me he "wished I wasn't his mom" and that I am "the dumbest, stupidest mom ever" when I wont let him have his way or when I wont let friends spend the night because he's been rebellious and disrespectful.  I gently remind him that the consequences of our sin hurts. It hurts us and its hurts others (like his littles friends that were counting on coming over and spending the night last night...they were crushed...they had big tears).

This morning I was able to talk to him about his actions and choices he made yesterday and how they not only cost him and hurt him they also hurt his friends. His little eyes filled with tears when I told him that his friends bags were packed and by their front door and I had to watch them cry as I left their house leaving them behind after I dropped Beckham off to spend the night with their brother. It was a great teaching moment. I am still really sad that I had to devastate his little friends. It. Was. So. Hard. But, I think something may have broke in Parker. As I was telling him that our actions don't only effect us, they effect others you could see a change across his face. He was processing it and thinking about it.  I asked Parker on the way to gymnastics about the choices he will make today and he said...

"I am going to chose to run from Satan and run to the Lord!"

How true is that, even as adults. How often do we forget that our choices that we make and our decisions effect other people around us. Maybe some we don't even realize we are effecting. Whether it be positively or negatively. I pray today that we will all be so aware of our choices and our decisions and their outcomes. That we will be present in everything we do. That we will run from our sin, from the enemy and into the arms of the Lord.

1 comment:

  1. I remember those tough moments as a teacher; you're doing great! You're still pointing out the positives and being hopeful. Hang in there!

    ReplyDelete

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