God answers prayers...

Our oldest has been experiencing a lot of bad dreams lately so every night he asks that when we pray, we pray for God to take away his bad dreams and give him good dreams. We repeat this prayer again if he wakes up in the middle of the night with a bad dream, allowing him to fall back to sleep.

One of the nights our youngest wanted me to say the same prayer to him too. Which I did. However, our oldest was upset that I said the exact same prayer. So, later that night when he woke up screaming he told me "LITTLE BROTHER STOLE MY GOOD DREAMS!"

However, this morning my oldest told me: "Mommy, God answered my prayer last night." Oh yea buddy, how is that? "He gave me sweet dreams about us going back to Hawaii with Grammy and Pops. And you were there, and daddy, and Little Bro. It was a really nice dream mommy."

Until late spring (when we go back to Hawaii with my folks) I can only imagine and hope his dreams look something like this...

What are you dreaming of today?

Not just for the mommies out there...

I had the priviledge of listening to a recorded broadcast by Beth Moore, an amazing Christian speaker, the other night at bible study. Amazing. One thing that she said that has really stuck with me the past few days is that she said in a way everyone is a mother. Everyone is a parent. Those with kids, and those without. Huh? We are all responsible for the next generation. We are all "parenting" the next generation.

Wow. What a thought.

It's kind of fun thinking that I, as a mom of 2 boys, am actually also a "parent" to thousands of daughters. Though not quite fulfilling the longing I have, it's one that I can be excited about; I can be an influence to thousands of girls.

These children are looking up to us...all of us...each and every one of us...kids or no kids. They are watching our every move. They are learning how to be good stewards of Christ by watching us. They are learning how to be good moms and good dads, good husbands and good wives, good friends and good sons and daughters by watching us. They are learning how to respond when they are angry, how to forgive or ask for forgiveness, and learning about grace, by watching us. They are learning how to serve, how to sacrifice, how to love, how to care and how to give by watching us.


Unfortunately, they are also watching the bad things. 


The other day I was at the park with my boys. This sweet little girl came up to my oldest son and asked if they could be friends. My son, new on the whole speaking to others (see sticker chart), shyly obliged. They were playing great together until my youngest son was trying to go down the slide. I wasn't too concerned that she was encouraging him down the slide, after all, the slide was only 2 feet off the ground. However, her mother came over IRATE that she was doing that. She drug (literally pulled her off the slide and had the girl's feet dragging behind her) her over to the bench and SCREAMED (read: verbal abuse) at this little girl. I tried to say that it was okay, she didn't cause any harm but the mom would not hear it. A few minutes later it happened again, only this time the mom screamed at the little girl to go to the van for a consequence. Fortunately I was able to distract the mom long enough to have her forget that she was going to "give a consequence." What did the little girl do? She picked some flowers for me. ME. A complete stranger. They are watching. 


The illustration above allowed for a great teachable moment with my boys too. 

As parents we can only do so much. We have to rely on those around us to be a support as well and hope that it's support, and not something else. It's scary to think that someone I don't even know, don't have a chance to approve or disapprove, will have an influence on my child. And there will be times when I am not around to provide my version of a teachable moment. It's for times like that that I pray...hard. If I didn't pray, I would drive myself crazy thinking about all the bad.


God give me a patient heart, an encouraging voice, and words to speak so I can positively influence my kids...all kids...Be with my children when I can't be there, guide them, help them to be the positive influence to their peers. God, please take my fears away. Fill my heart instead with love and trust that I'm doing my best, doing your will. Amen.


And a special prayer for ALL of you (parents or not) out there...may you be a positive influence today, tomorrow, and forever, knowing that little ones are watching. 


Readers: I never know what to do when I see a situation of abuse. What would you/do you do?




© Transparencies of Motherhood 2010

There's a reason we pray BEFORE we eat

My youngest (will be 2 in November) said he wanted to say the blessing at dinner the other night. Now, he doesn't know how to speak sentences yet, never mind know how to put 2 words together, so his older brother said he would help him. Here's the dialog...

Kadyn: "Dear God. Thank you for this food. Thank you for Mommy being an AMAZING cook. Thank you for Mommy, and Daddy, and Kai, and Boulder (our dog). And thank you God for making Boulder feel better (see post here about the $2500 bouncy ball he swallowed). Amen."

Not even 2 bites in to his dinner Kadyn turns and says to me "I don't like chicken nuggets (whiny sing songy voice)."

So much for being an amazing cook (like chicken nuggets would even qualify anyway). Maybe that's the real reason we pray before we eat as opposed to after. His prayer might have gone something like this...

"Dear God. Thank you for yogurt (I let them have a greek yogurt if they don't want dinner...softy? I know). Please help Mommy get better at cooking. Thank you for Boulder feeling better so he can eat whatever I pass him under the table. Amen."

Sometimes God speaks in the disguise of a 3 year old

The other day I was collecting leaves with my oldest son as a family project for his preschool. The assignment was for each student to collect some beautiful fall leaves to bring to class so the class could put something special together.

I was looking around for leaves with vibrant colors. I would hold one up and remark on how beautiful it was...so full of color. Kadyn would shake his head and say "Nah." Yet he was putting leaf after leaf in the bag. I peered in the bag and to my dismay he had wilted, brown leaves. I asked him what he was doing and he responded..."finding the beautiful ones." But honey, those have all those brown spots on them. "That's okay Mommy. They are still beautiful because God made them. See, that one has a speck of yellow on it. And that one is mostly red..."

His chatter went on, but my mind drifted off.

At what point in my life did I become so consumed that I stopped seeing that?

Oh sweet child of mine I hope you always see life like that. Whether leaf, friend, girl, wife...I pray you always find the beauty in everyone, everything. You're right. We are each perfectly, uniquely made...beautiful in the eye of our Creator. Thank you for reminding me...

Readers: Have you ever been taught a lesson or been reminded of something by someone you least expected? I often find children to unintentionally be the source of many of these reminders.


© Transparencies of Motherhood 2010