Aha moment

As a Christian parent, our main purpose is to raise our children in the love and admonition of the Lord and pray they will grow up and continue to walk in the truth. One day we all hope to hear our children proclaim their faith and stick to their convictions because they are THEIRS not because they are/were their parents. I have often said (and truly believe) my biggest challenge in life is being the mother of a boy. I can relate to my girls. I know how they think and when they are scheming. I understand their moods and their attitudes. I know what they are going to go through when they start to change from a girl to a women. I don't have a CLUE about any of that where my son is concerned. Having a son that is about a year from being a teenager, I really struggle with the job I have and am doing in raising him. I know that I am not equipped to raise a boy into a man. I mean, I have never been a man before. I don't have the slightest idea how to make him into a man. To raise him to be a Godly man that is the leader of his home and provider for his family with morals and character-that is one tall order that I feel COMPLETELY unable to fill!! Luckily I am not fully responsible for that. Kenyon has a dad that was once a boy and somehow became a man even though he did not have a dad around to help him along the way so surely he knows a little bit about the process and will be able to help his own son. More importantly, He has a Heavenly Father that does not want to see anyone perish but offers us all the opportunity for eternal life. A Heavenly Father that hears and answers our prayers. A Heavenly Father that will not fail us or forsake us. I have done (and will continue to do) everything I can to be sure my son knows this Father. I have introduced them and they have started to form their own relationship. I will do all I can to nurture their relationship and watch it grow. And I will pray and pray and pray to this same Heavenly Father for my son as we do start seeing him grow up into the man he will someday be. Regardless of all my efforts, I still spend most of my time wondering if I am even on the right track. I can't read Kenyon like my girls. Most often I don't know exactly what he is thinking. I can't tell exactly how he feels. I just don't always know if he really "gets it." Those feelings are what make the Aha moments that we get to witness even more sweet and special- like a little pat on the back saying "keep it up! He is getting it. way to go mom."
A few weeks ago on a Sunday evening the preacher was preaching about how we all have to have our OWN faith. We all must follow the Lord on our own because We believe. If your parents stop following God, you must continue yourself. If your youth pastor is called to another church, you must continue to follow the Lord. If your preacher goes off the deep end and just stopped serving the Lord, your own faith should be strong enough that you continue serving Him. All through the sermon, Kenyon was listening and asking me questions. He was relating things the preacher was saying to things we often say around the house about not worrying about what others are doing you do what you know is right(we use that a lot in regards to tattling). When the sermon was over and the invitation was starting, Kenyon looked shocked. .......the moment......
Kenyon:Whoa! That didn't seem like hours like it usually does. It only seems like we have been here like 33 minutes or something.
Me: See! When you really listen to the sermon and let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart so that you learn what the Lord wants you to learn, it never seems like hours. That is when you think "wait! it can't be over! I want to learn MORE!"
Kenyon: AHA MOMENT! Oh! so that is why you love it so much!

Getting back on track

Well the new year has begun and FINALLY we have started back to school. I got taken down pretty good by some kind of ninja bug and it has really thrown things for a loop around here! On Christmas eve I got sick and spent most of that day in bed. Monty and the kids really pulled together and worked on getting the house in order for Christmas. I was able to get up that evening and get all the last minute wrapping done after the kids went to bed. On Christmas day we went to Grandma's and I ate some lunch and then went to sleep in her chair until we came back home. I was feeling some better but the snow storm, I am sure, did not help a lot. During the paper route, mom got stuck 3 or 4 different times over the next few days. One time she did such a good job at getting stuck that I was forced to knock on a farmers door at 6 am and ask for his help in pulling her out. Luckily he was very nice and did not seem overly annoyed that mom tried driving a ford focus down a snow packed dirt road with 6 foot drifts. He got all bundled up and hopped in his F250 4x4 and got her right out. I only got stuck once-in a drive way. The first half of the circle drive was clear so I guess I did not notice that the wind had blown 2 foot of snow onto the other half. I found a bowl in the back of the van and had to dig my way down to the pavement around the tires in order to back out of it. All that playing in the snow in the middle of the night the week after Christmas really gave the bug that had been attacking me it's ninja force and it really started kicking my behind!! I was down for the count! By the next weekend, I was really only out of bed to go (or run) to the bathroom. My cough was AWFUL and the amount of snot coming out of my head is just not normal!! All that fun stuff led to me loosing my voice. Lucky for me, my husband was such a help. He was off New years eve, New years day, the weekend and Monday for a free day off he had won at work. He completely took over and I spent most of the time in bed on musinex and NyQuil with the vaporizer going and my box of Kleenex and bottle of Mentholatum close by. Finally, this week I am starting to feel better. I still do not have my whole voice back and can't stray to far from a Kleenex but I feel better. I spent a little time with each of the kids this weekend to catch up. I just really had to tell them each how much I missed them and do a little one on one talking about anything I may have missed in the week or so that I had been out of commission-I did not even know what they had been eating thanks to my wonderful husband taking full control. They all told me that they understood and had been praying for me. They are just the sweetest kids! ♥ I bet it helped them understand some since dad sometimes counts pumpkin pie as breakfast and tortillas with melted cheese, pretzels and popcorn as supper. :) It also helped that I had not even mentioned school and the limits on video games were almost non existent. This weekend the kids had noticed that their "goofy mom" was returning. They were all excited for "goofy mom's" return but they also realized this meant the inevitable return to school. That is what we have spent today doing, trying to get back on track. It was a slow start but it started none the less and I am personally excited to be back to a somewhat normal routine(as normal as it gets around here anyway). :)