We have had some trouble with Lamb 1 recently. Everyone I've talked to with older boys has told me if he just turned 10 then this is nothing compared to what will happen in a few years. I won't spend too long on my blog about this, but I will mention that in the last few weeks he lost a new sweatshirt and his bike helmet at the neighbor girl's back yard. Both times it was an extreme crisis until he found it the next time he went over there. Ram was not surprised by this at all, he replied that he probably would have done the same thing when he was Lamb 1's age. (Unless it was a book-he never would have forgotten a book!) This is so difficult for me after growing up with no brothers.
He found the sweatshirt tonight and I tried to give the Lambs as long as possible to play with their friends. That was my mistake-I should have called them in earlier than I did to change their clothes for church. I had a lot of complaints about needing to hurry to change clothes and why they needed to change clothes instead of wearing shorts and t-shirts and even why we needed to go to church tonight.
We made it to church and took our seats at exactly 7pm. The congregation began singing the first hymn. We were smaller in numbers tonight than we are on Sunday mornings. But Lamb 1 sang loudly for the first hymn. It made me smile after the rush to get to church. Moments like this help me keep at this parenting of boys. Because this is really what matters.
1 comment:
I'm also a Pastor's wife and my boys are now 24 and 20. I used to resent the phrase "Boys will be boys", that is prior to having children I thought that this statement was nothing but a self-fulfililng prophecy.
Well, Boys will be Boys and they are uniquely gifted. Our two sons share some similarities, in other ways they are very different. The general trend of "boyness" didn't really manifest itself until their late elementary years.
What does it look like to raise a regular old fashioned boy? Lost books, lost coats (yes, even brand new ones), a shoe left in a locker room 4 counties away, UNbelievable excuses about many things, carelessness, GINORMOUS dreams (i.e., still wanting to be a pro baseball player at age 18 even when there is no way that will ever happen), occasional disregard for safety, etc, etc. etc.
But I can promise you that those things do not exclude tender hearts, good manners, helping little old ladies at church, and on occasional gentlemanly manners.
The rub is that it happens in spurts so it tends to catch us super watchful mothers off guard. I learned to ride the wave, lower my expectations, raise my praise, and eventually give thanks that my boys were so different than my girls. Our boys went to a private Christian school. They both had an appearance or two or three in the principal's office. The first time I flipped out. The last time I barely batted an eye lash.
Our sons are maturing into vey, very fine Christian young men. However, there has been some gnashing of teeth, repeated and long lasting pillow talk with my husband, and prayer. I would not trade my guys for anything, and I'm thankful that I got "wise" enough to let them navigate the bumps of their formative years without becoming a helicopter mother. It wasn't easy, but God gave me strength.
So, a lot of words just to say, count yourself blessed to be the mother of three unique boys. God will work all things out to the good for those that love Him.
Post a Comment