Reality

Today was a breaking point for me. Battle after battle made for a very long day with a very adorable three year old. Temper tantrums, fits of fury and an unwillingness to obey the simplest command made me feel like a failure as a mother. So, as my little angel passed out early on the couch still covered in spaghetti, I began my frantic search for Dobson's book: The Strong Willed Child. What I learned was that my son may not be quite as strong willed as I thought, which gives an exhausted mom some hope; but as the tears ran down my face, I realized that I am not as alone as I thought! Just the stories alone were able to make me feel so much better!!! What encouragement this is to me as I look around my church family watching the delightful angels sitting with their parents not making a sound as I carry my son kicking and screaming out to find the nursery. I feel like a failure... a bad parent... a bad Christian (whatever that means)... so I am now determined to talk about it. To be real with other moms about how challenging child rearing can be. There's a false pretense to facebook and blogs where we can turn our lives into pictures of perfection where every child loves to go to bed and never throws a fit at Toys R Us. But the reality is that no family is perfect and that we can rejoice that the Lord hears our prayers, has made these precious children and has their lives already planned out. Can I hear a big sigh? :) whew! What beautiful children we have around us, strong willed or not, they are their own little individuals and we as parents have help in raising them. We have their Creator (our Creator) to call on day or night who hears us, loves us (and them) and will help us get through it. Talking about it helps though... let's be honest about it - laughter will always make a challenging day feel so much better!