a mikey moment

tonight, during our usual bedtime routine of bible story-turn off light-sharing what we’re thankful for-praying-humming a lullaby-tucking kiddos in bed-giving one last goodnight kiss and snuggle-blowing two kisses before shutting the door, i asked mikey and allie if they were thankful for vbs.  (vbs started today and both kids LOVED their first day, wanted to play the music cd we got for the rest of the day and night- which we did, and talked about, and sang along to, all day).  but when sharing what they were thankful for tonight, mikey said he was thankful for his toy crane and allie said she was thankful for her princess ‘b’ (aka blankie).  i knew they were both thankful for vbs since it was only the main topic of the entire day today, but i wanted them to remember to be thankful for it (for what they learned about God, for all the fun they had, and for all the people who are working so hard to make vbs happen this week) and to prompt them to be thankful for more than just their toys.  you know?

anyhow, they both readily agreed that they were thankful for vbs and since i was laying down, mikey leaned his head over mine, gazed right into my eyes and said, “i’m thankful for vbs, and i’m thankful for you, mommy.”

this, after a kinda challenging evening with phil on call and my walking in to the living room just in time to catch mikey lean over to push his baby sister lauren because she was playing with the building toys he didn’t want her to touch.  it wasn’t a big push, just a gentle, mikey-like, tap on her arm.  but i knew he meant it to be a push, and one that he didn’t want to be caught doing.  and he knew that i knew what he was doing.

so after disciplining him for it and talking to him about it, and then telling him that i forgave him and loved him, i sent him back to lauren to apologize (not that she knew anything was even wrong) and to give her a hug.  still, i felt kinda sad and disappointed by what happened.  because he knew it was very wrong of him to do, and because i think he did it because he knew i wasn’t in the room at the time and so thought he could get away with it.  that made me sad.  but i let it go, since we dealt with it and he didn’t have a lingering bad attitude about it.

a few minutes later, we were all back in the living room and mikey came up to me and cheerfully said, “mommy, now i’m really sorry for hitting lauren and i won’t do it again, ok?”

which then made me thankful that i didn’t lose my temper with him in that moment and calmly dealt with it even though i wanted to voice my anger at him when it happened.  i’m thankful because i think mikey understood better the reason for the disciplining (as a consequence for his actions) instead of just knowing that mommy was mad at him, and because that discipline actually did bring about repentance in his heart.

and because he was still thankful for his mommy at the end of the day. 

and lastly, i’m thankful because God is still at work in me, and shows me just how effective His parenting methods are, and can still use me in spite of my own many weaknesses and failures.  He doesn’t need me to be the perfect parent, i just need to keep depending on Him and to keep pointing my kids to Him who never fails and who loves them vastly more than i ever could.