Kari wrote:
It was 7:30 when I finally went up and opened their room and we started to make noise to wake them. It was still a bit till we got them up. Now tonight we went to a friends house and we didn't get home and in bed till midnight. So I'm sure they'll be up bright and early, while Kari and I want to sleep tommarrow.
It was a good Christmas. We had a lot of fun and it was nice with the girls this year. They are more into everything. Although, the big gift the we got for them was a bit anticlamatic. We got them hamsters. We're expecting screams of joy and celebration; we got, "Oh! Hamsters...". It was a bit of a let down for me. But I'll get over it.
There is a lesson in that I think. We as parents often have plans and ideas for our children. But it is they that choose the path they take. Our children are not going to always make the choices that we agree with all the time. They'll not get excited about the things we think they'll get excited about. It is easy for parents to feel bad when this happens. We feel like a failure as a parent or we become dissappointed in our child because they didn't meet our expectations. Do you see the problem? It's not them, it's us. When we have come to the point where we feel like failures or are dissappointed in them, we have to evaluate ourselves. We make it about us to often don't we? It's selfish and it hurts our kids. When we feel like a failure, we end up neglecting our kids. When we are dissapointed we bring condemantion into their lives.
So what are we to do? Just enjoy them for who they are. It is not our job as parents to make them into who we want them to be, but to protect, guide, discipline and interceed for, in order that they might become who God created them to be. And in Jeremiah 29 God says that He has some pretty good stuff ahead for us, and our children. Trust Him and love them.
later...
Can you believe this...it's 6:45 a.m., Kurt and I are wide
awake...where are the girls?? In bed still, sound asleep.....what is up
with that????????????
It was 7:30 when I finally went up and opened their room and we started to make noise to wake them. It was still a bit till we got them up. Now tonight we went to a friends house and we didn't get home and in bed till midnight. So I'm sure they'll be up bright and early, while Kari and I want to sleep tommarrow.
It was a good Christmas. We had a lot of fun and it was nice with the girls this year. They are more into everything. Although, the big gift the we got for them was a bit anticlamatic. We got them hamsters. We're expecting screams of joy and celebration; we got, "Oh! Hamsters...". It was a bit of a let down for me. But I'll get over it.
There is a lesson in that I think. We as parents often have plans and ideas for our children. But it is they that choose the path they take. Our children are not going to always make the choices that we agree with all the time. They'll not get excited about the things we think they'll get excited about. It is easy for parents to feel bad when this happens. We feel like a failure as a parent or we become dissappointed in our child because they didn't meet our expectations. Do you see the problem? It's not them, it's us. When we have come to the point where we feel like failures or are dissappointed in them, we have to evaluate ourselves. We make it about us to often don't we? It's selfish and it hurts our kids. When we feel like a failure, we end up neglecting our kids. When we are dissapointed we bring condemantion into their lives.
So what are we to do? Just enjoy them for who they are. It is not our job as parents to make them into who we want them to be, but to protect, guide, discipline and interceed for, in order that they might become who God created them to be. And in Jeremiah 29 God says that He has some pretty good stuff ahead for us, and our children. Trust Him and love them.
later...