You never know what exactly your children are absorbing in your home. They can easily pick up on your bad habit's without training and you wonder if anything is really getting through. This past weekend I realized that the most important parts of our parenting has gotten through in a powerful way.
We are not a perfect family. I don't have it all together. Our marriage isn't perfect either, but our family and my marriage are amazing. They are amazing because we have gone through so much together and battle for every inch of our freedom. So I guess I write all of that to let you know that we have the good, the bad and the ugly at times in our house. This past weekend was no exception.
There has been a lot of stress and anxiety in our house since my husbands return from over seas. Communication has been at an all time low and every one's feelings were getting hurt. By last Thursday night things escalated and we were having an ugly moment in the Livin' household. We were desperately trying to pack for our church's Family Camping Trip. Friday proved to be just as stressful and ugly. Things finally blew up over the phone between my Knight and I. We try never to argue in front of the kids learning early on that was not a good idea, so I shut myself in the bathroom with the phone. Like I really was hiding our argument from the kids. They were in the room next to me hearing every angry and bitter word we spoke.
They heard everything. Things got very ugly and words were spoken which I won't even pollute my computer with. I hung up and started to sob. After a few minutes of my toilet tantrum I realized someone was talking in the other room. Shaggy, Rocker and Drama King had gathered in the dinning room to discuss our current situation. This was their dialog...
Shaggy: "We have got to pray guys. We need to stop the devil from wreaking our family."
Rocker: "Yeh!! The Bible says where two or more are gathered God is in the middle of us."
Shaggy:" Well you and I make 2 and DK makes more so He's got to be here."
DK: "I am not good at praying. My prayers don't work."
Shaggy:"That's not true, your prayers are powerful and make the devil scared."
Rocker: "Lets pray. God please let mommy and daddy go together on the camp out and stop them from fighting."
Shaggy: "God, stop satan from messing with our family and heal mommy and daddy's heart so no one gets left out or they divorce."
DK: Praying in his God language.
Then all of them begin to pray in their God language (or some call it speaking in tongues, our kids just like to call it their God language)
So I felt the hand of God move on my heart and I crawled out of the bathroom and asked for forgiveness. We went to the grocery store for supplies and my Knight came home for our trip. We made up as the kids watched their prayers answered before their eyes. In the car I over heard Shaggy say "...see our prayers do work powerfully, God rocks!'
I realized trough all the "stuff" we have been through as a family they have learned the power of prayer. Not through daily devotional times or lecturing, but in our day to day walk with God. My kids have seen us pray. They have seen the power of God's healing through prayer. They learned one of the most important lessons we could teach as a parent and it wasn't through lectures but through doing. God does Rock!!!!
Sorry if I fell off any pedestals or shattered any one's picture of us being a perfect family. We're not and it doesn't bother me that people know it.:)
8 comments:
Thank you. I don't really know what else to say more than that. Thank you so much. Jason and I have been through quite a journey with each other and the Lord so far in our short 4 1/2 years and sometimes I get down wondering if our struggles affect the kids. Our children witness and share in all of our praying too...and your post has SO lifted me up. Even though we have not been able to get to know each other yet...I want to say I love you and I greatly appreciate what you have shared.
That just may be the coolest post I ever read. Thanks for sharing.
I think one of the reasons why I like you so much is because you are REAL. And, it is because of this that your boys 'get it'. They know real like and are not disillusioned Christians.
I don't know what I love more - the fact that they rallied together to pray for you guys (standing in the gap and interceding at such a young age!), the fact that they encouraged the youngest and validated his worth or the fact that God's truth was so quickly on their lips. AWESOME!
My hearts cry is that my boys exhibit these same qualities when faced with adversity.
I meant real life not real like...
Wow - that is truly awesome! My Little Guy's newest thing when we argue or even get excited about something that is going on is to tell us we are "experiencing technical difficulties."
This is so awesome! So now, put those boys to work praying for our adoption - there's been a "glitch" - see the latest post as of about 4 p.m. on Friday. Pray, boys, pray!
That was such a great post. Tears just filled my eyes and I got very emotional reading this! My heart's desire is that my boys will also know that God is real, that there is power in prayer, and to expect God to move - just like your kids did! Thank you for sharing this with all of us. It was also so cool to see them encourage the youngest to pray and they later on talk about how their prayers worked - all so cool!
You are such an encouragement to all of us livin life. Life is messy at times. I beleive it was Kris Vallotin that said you can't have a testimony without a test. Sometimes we are the test for our kids, sometimes they are the test for us! Sometimes we pass the test, sometimes we don't, but we do get do overs. Isn't God good in showing us how far we've come!! You and your family are a great testimony to the power of God in our everyday lives! Love livin life with ya'!
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