Growing up is hard to do...

Of course I would love to have wonderful things to report about our children, but the cold hard facts are that things aren't always wonderful. We have the usual, daily scuttles between siblings, hateful words, selfishness and an occasional physical encounter. What some families might call run of the mill kinda stuff. As a christian parent I'm dissappointed that my children behave this way. We teach them Christ like ways, and live it, not to perfection, but with forgiveness. I feel like we have failed to get the point across some days. Ecspecially when our friends who don't teach their children about Christ, but do teach them 'golden rule' principles, and their children behave more Christ like than ours. Very embarrassing!

This past week a young man at church told us about a GODtube video he saw, which really made him think. It was " A letter from hell". I had a chance to watch it with Chuck on Sunday afternoon. Wesley walked in on the tail end, and then watched it in it's entirity. He asked Chuck some questions and went about his way. Later that night we were pulling into the garage after church, he leaned over and whisperd "Mom, I need to speak to you in my room, alone, and I don't know how you'll take this." He's 10, turning 11 soon, I wasn't sure what to expect (after all how bad could it really be?) He confessed that two friends at school used bad language and he has been using it too. He burst into tears and sobbed in my arms. "Mom I don't want to do it anymore", he sobbed.
I was thankful to God for giving me the wisdom how to handle this situation. I didn't lecture, yell or shame him. I held him for a while and then reminded him of David and how he would sin and realize he'd hurt God, then he'd repent and change his ways and that God said to David (who did some really horrible things by our standards) "You are a man after God's own heart."

Wesley and I prayed together and discussed that he needed to change friends and not put himself in their company again, and ways of doing that while remaining Christ like to them, without being ONE of them.

My heart burst with joy over his conviction and contrite heart. He realized he was jeopardizing not just his soul, but his friends too! My heart was broken because we had to exprience something like this, and I know that worse may be coming in the next few years. It's hard for me as a parent to believe I'm teaching the right things, but not getting the right results. If anything, this will make me more prayerful on my children's behalf.

This morning, Wesley (a prayer warrior, in his own right!)asked Chuck and I to come to his room and pray for him to have strength to change, stay changed, and to stay away from the temptation. In my profile I mention how I learn as much from my boys as they learn from me, this is one of those moments. Bittersweet!

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a rightous man is powerful and effective." James 5:16