Overheard tonight at prayer time… and some rambling thoughts

Here’s my favorite snippets from each of the kids’ prayers tonight.

Gracie: “Thank you for my birthday and thank you that we had a good Christmas. Not today, but that other day.”

Braden: “Thank you for the good dinner we had tonight. I’m so thankful for our family.”

Rhett: “I pray that Baby Khloe gets to come home soon, that I would have a good day at school tomorrow (LOVE this.) and (here comes the best part!!) please help me to not give my Mom a hard time in the morning.”

Rhett’s our “typical” middle child and our strong willed child. He and I had a bit of a hard afternoon, but we worked it out, had a nice talk and it turned out to be a nice evening. He has days where he is completely sweet and obedient all day. Where he’s helpful and kind and respectful no matter what.  And then there are days where the sweetness is hard to come by and obeying the simplest rules/requests seem to be completely impossible for him. Thankfully, as he is getting older, we are having more good days than bad days. I love him so much, he makes us laugh and is such a joy.  I can’t imagine my life without him for a second, even though sometimes I collapse in bed in tears after a hard day.

The Lord recently convicted me in that I’ve been trying too hard to “fix” him and haven’t been simply praying for him enough. So, I’ve committed the past several days to praying for him specifically almost constantly throughout the day. I plan to continue praying specifically for him more than I did in 2010. I trust that God will show me what to say and what to do to be the best parent for him and I trust that He will help Rhett to control his emotions and help him make good decisions.

But that prayer tonight… brought tears to my eyes. For the first time, I heard him verbally express that he cares. He desires to try to do better and make good decisions.

Thank you, Lord! We are making some progress!

Sometimes I need to just let go (in this case, of striving for perfectionism in the area of my children) and let God.

I’m sure we will always have good days and bad days…what family doesn’t. But, I KNOW that Rhett is going to “turn out” just fine. Wonderful, actually. I see so much of his Daddy in him. Those same character traits that make me love Jason so much… I can see them in Rhett. It’s just that he has to learn, for instance, when it’s ok to be stubborn (like when you’re running a business and/or you just have to stand your ground for what you believe in…) or to be funny (not in class, during a church service, or when your mom is trying to teach you a lesson and/or discipline you…).

Ahhh…. I love that boy :)

I’m sure I’m not the only Mom struggling with stuff like this….
Am I??