Father's Day

Like Mother's Day, Father's Day brings much emotion for many people, regret, sadness at the passing of a lost loved one, for each of us it means something different. I am so blessed to have a man in my life now that I can honor on Father's Day. I do not know my father, have never met him and know only very little about him so this is not a day that I have childhood memories or traditions built on. I could ramble ad nauseum about how wonderful and what a blessing The Principal is to our family and my son in particular. I will spare you. I did want to take a moment to publicly thank my sweet husband for the man he is and the living example of what a godly husband and father looks like in his daily walk with God. Thank You Lord for giving The Principal to us that WonderBoy and I might know what it is to have the love of a good man with a kind and humble heart in our lives.

Sweetheart, thank you for taking on the role of father with such grace, character and honor.
Happy Father's Day
I love you deeply!!

Ten Years of (Wonder)Boy Joy!!

May 1st, 2011 WonderBoy turned 10 years old. We were without power due to the storms that came through our area April 27th. For that reason and lack of a properly functioning computer, I was not able to do a post for his birthday as I would have like to, so this is that post....Happy Belated Birthday Sweetie!!
The words whirlwind, wow!!,tornado, one man show and full steam ahead all parade across my mind when describing my sweet boy. He is FULL to overflowing with life, energy, curiosity and a live life large spirit! I was recently blessed by my sweet husband with a new laptop for Mother's Day and in the process of going through files on the old laptop and transferring and cleaning out files I had a very teary eyed stroll down memory lane. The 21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons is just about halfway completed now and I thought this was an ideal time to share with you some of the moments from the last 10 years that will be forever etched in my mother's heart of the gifts that WonderBoy has brought to my life. I am so grateful to Brooke for this prayer challenge by the way - it has given me new vision and perspective that I knew I needed just wasn't great at getting in my own efforts.
Everyday as I pray, I see new ways to pray, new areas that would benefit from prayer and even where prayers of the past and been answered and where God is moving in WonderBoy's heart. Beginning with Day 1 I prayed that God would give me His eyes to see my son through - what an amazing view and perspective I am seeing emerging, my heart is being softened and I find I am not as quick to pounce on some things as I may have been in the past - just being real ;-) I pray that God will continue to work in me as I lift WonderBoy to Him in prayer, afterall a learning, growing and healing mom is a blessing to any son!
Take a minute with me if you will and allow me to share some of my favorite moments from the 10 years that have moved as he does - in a flash!
Dear God, Thank You for these 1o years of motherhood, these 10 years of love, laughter, tears, craziness, confusion, struggles and triumphs.
Thank You Father for guiding us through the dark places when our flashlights were out of batteries.
Thank You for the heart of joy that you have given this child. Thank You for his good health and for his infectious smile!I pray Lord that he will know you and seek you all the days of his life.I pray that your ways will become his ways.I pray that Your approval will be the only approval he will come to seek in this world.I pray that he will know and hear Your voice and allow it to be his guide all the days of his life Father.
I pray he would honor you in word and deed and seek to be a man of honor always.
Thank You God for my son - Bless him today and always in the name of your precious son I pray.Amen.

I'm linking up with other 21 Days of Prayers for Our Sons moms here, take a minute and visit some of them if you can!

Matters of the Heart

I just completed my morning quiet time of prayer for WonderBoy. This is Day 3 of the 21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons that I am so excited to be part of. Today's prayers are centered around Avoiding Foolishness. This is good stuff - meat and potatoes that you can sink your teeth into prayer! I am loving it!!
Day 1 started things off with Obedience - is there a child (or adult for that matter) that does not struggle with issues of obedience? Nature of the human condition regardless of age and why prayer in this area is SO important - only God can change hearts.
Day 2 was a logical progression from Obedience to Submission to Authority. This dear readers is a hot topic in our home! It continues to amaze and confound me how this whole thing works. Let me give you a little history/insight....curtain is down on this, this is the real deal raw truth. My sweet son has some pretty major issues with Submission to Authority. My husband and I have little to no challenges in this area of our lives, we have our share of issues in other areas rest assured and I intend to be as transparent as I can be about those too in the interest of full disclosure ;-)
As you may or may not be aware from reading my ramblingsin the past, I am a survivor of divorce. WonderBoy's dad and I were together for the better part of 10 years all total, our marriage dissolved right at a year after WonderBoy was born. The reasons and gory details of all that are best left for another post entirely which, by the way has been brewing in the background of my thoughts for a while - so far I'm so sure how to put it all together - but I am thinking a series of posts about marriage (feel free to pray for me on this one).
Onward. Dad is not an ideal role model of Submission to Authority on any level but does provide many excellent examples of the consequences of what being out the God's Will in this area of life will produce. So how is it then, that the people you spend the most time with, the ones that are training and guiding, the ones sowing seed and watering growth, encouraging, sacrificing, grooming and doing all they know to be what a child needs to grow to the man of God they are called to be, have the least amount of influence? It leaves me downright flabbergasted. Onward. This is an area of prayer that we need to meet on our knees in full battle gear on an ongoing daily basis. The thing is that until WonderBoy's heart is changed little of what we do or say will have any desired impact. Only God can change a heart of stone.

Ezekiel 36:26-27
New Century Version (NCV)

26 Also, I will teach you to respect me completely, and I will put a new way of thinking inside you. I will take out the stubborn hearts of stone from your bodies, and I will give you obedient hearts of flesh.27 I will put my Spirit inside you and help you live by my rules and carefully obey my laws.

This whole issue of Heart has been coming up so much that it cannot be ignored. It is, I believe, the very root of where our battles must be waged from. The Principal is currently working through Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp (a wonderful book that I highly recommend) with his men's bible study lunch group each Wednesday and gaining wonderful insight in this area. We are constantly talking about issues of the heart. I am curretnly reading The Five Love Language of Children by Ross Campbell and Gary Chapman (another worthwhile read, which mentions time and time over about these issues of the heart. I am thinking that this is the road - the narrow road I am to follow. Would you be inclined to agree? I have been praying for years that God would show me how to 'get through' to WonderBoy and I no longer believe in coincedences. The timing of all these things is in His design for a time such as this!!
And if all this is not enough, WonderBoy asked if we could spend the day painting recently, so yesterday we gathered together our supplies and with a vision and a plan, this is what my son produced......

Ok Lord, gotcha! ;-)
This post is part of a blog hop in which I will be participating each Friday during the 21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons. I am on a team being led by Jodi at Granola Mom 4 God. Please take a minute to visit Jodi and some of the other Mom's on my team and share in what God is doing in and through them throughout this journey.