Alex has learned to play the guitar. As a matter of fact, he had his first performance last Sunday. He accompanied the children's choir at church on Sunday. We were so proud of him. It takes amazing courage to get up and do that for the first time. And he was nervous. I learned on Monday that our pianist found him kneeling at the altar before he performed. She knelt beside him and prayed with that precious child. What he was praying for, I may never know but he talked to God before he worshipped Him with his music.
I shared that with a friend and she told me I should write that down. She said moms need an "I'm not a failure" journal to write these things in. Then on the tough days, we should go back and read the good things. Isn't that the truth!
As a parent, we train, we teach, we correct, we scold, we praise, we punish. It's not a job where the rewards are instant and obvious. We go to bed each night and pray that SOMETHING we have said that day sank into "that thick head." We see eyes roll, hear clicking tongues, feel rejection, smell stinky attitudes and taste complete and utter defeat. If it was any other job, we probably would have quit by now.
But God is faithful and this is a job we have been called by Him to do. So every once in a while, we get to experience the little joys. And every once in a GREAT while, we see the fruits of our labor. We see the child doing what they've been trained to do. We see them following our teaching. We see that they have learned to correct themselves. We see that they scold themselves and we don't have to. We see that our praise has made them stronger and more confident. We see that our punishment has taught them to turn in a different direction. We see grateful eyes, hear loving tongues, feel love, smell sweet success, and taste the utter joy of being MOM or DAD. The rewards are not instant or obvious, but nothing worth doing is easy. And when we can write in our "I'm not a failure" journal, it has been a VERY good day. So maybe, with a lot of prayer and the faithfulness of the Lord, we will make it through this journey after all.
