One of the inevitabilities of parenting is feeling like a failure at least 10 times a week (day?). Or questioning if anything you're doing is having any impact. I have wondered aloud, on more than one occasion, if a cardboard cut-out of myself would be as effective a parent as the actual me. But then...every once in a while...something happens to encourage you on your journey and help you believe that you might be doing something right.
Last week our family vacation included a trip to waterpark. While Connor was certainly tall enough to ride several slides, I questioned whether or not they may be too fast or scary. Standing at the bottom of a slide, I asked a life guard, "Is this one really fast?" "It is called 'Extreme Rush'," he responded. Still, Connor wanted to try. We climbed the steps to the top and got him situated stomach-down on his mat, when he started to nervously whine. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to," I told him. "It's perfectly fine to get off." No, no, he wanted to try. Off he went down "Extreme Rush" as I raced down to meet him at the bottom. Smiling ebulliently, he bounded off the slide. "Mom! You know how I did the slide? God was in my heart, and he helped me!"
The past week began our August theme of "Many Names." Thursday morning I told the boys we needed to read our story for the week before we ran errands. "Mom," Brady asked, "could we read the story about Joshua and the walls? I want to read that one!" How could I say no to a request? Happily changing the lesson plan, I flipped to the story about Joshua leading the Isrealites to Jericho, settling in the promised land, and ending with our revised verse for the week, Joshua 24:15, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
May it be so.
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