Being a mom means that I worry about my children’s future. I know that I have no control over it, but I cannot help it. I also know that God wants me NOT to worry and to pray instead. So now that I am trying to not worry as much. I am making a conscious effort to pray for my children. I have always prayed for them, but now I am praying more intentionally and for specific blessings. I pray for each of my daughters individually.

I pray for God to provide a God fearing husband. I ask God for a loving man who will love, honor, and cherish my beautiful child. I hope for a man who would be a good provider and a good friend. I also hope for a happy, healthy marriage filled with memories that they can talk about with their grandchildren. I pray that my child and her husband would serve God and His people throughout their life together and depend on God for guidance. I hope that my child would live a full life to God’s glory!

If you are interested in praying for your child but you aren’t sure how to do it, read The Power of a Praying® Parent Deluxe Editionby Stormie Omartian. Each chapter is about a different topic and includes a prayer that you can pray verbatum for your child. It helped me when started praying for my children.

Living as a mom means praying fervently for your children’s future.

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Since C4 accepted Christ, she has been hilarious with her sister. She keeps “preaching” to A2.

The other day she told A2 that she had asked Jesus to be her best friend and A2 can do that after she gets to know Jesus a little better. When she knows a lot about him, she can ask Him to be her best friend, too.

Today I heard her explain that no one is perfect except Jesus. She went on to say that people always make mistakes and need to ask for forgiveness. She explained that you have to pray and tell God that you are sorry for making a bad choice and ask Him to help you to stop doing that. A2 was listening very intently during C4’s “sermon”.

It amazes me how God works through ALL of us. Maybe A2 will accept Christ because of her sister’s “sermons”.

The Bible tells us that He wants us to approach Him like little children. My daughter’s faith is remarkable, and I can only hope to come to Jesus the same way that she does.

One of my major struggles is with whether or not to have another baby and when the right time would be to do that. After experiencing postpartum depression after both of my pregnancies, I am concerned about going through it all over again. My heart is telling me to have another baby. I held a newborn today, and it just felt right. She was so sweet and full of snuggles. I yearn for that experience again. The question is: will it be like that for me?

My hands are pretty full these days with C4 needing OT and the possibility of pursuing other evaluations for her. Then I have the very busy A2 who is copying C4’s behavior and getting into her own mischief. I wonder if having another baby would be the best choice for our family.

And then the yearning comes back.

I have discussed conceiving again extensively with my therapist and prescribing physician. Having another baby is not highly recommended by the medical folks I see who have known me now for just about 2 years. It is possible that I will have a relapse in my symptoms even though I will continue taking my medication.

And then the yearning comes back.

I have prayed about this myself. I have asked very close friends to pray about it, too. I am asking that God take the yearning away if He knows that conceiving again is not the right path for me. I can’t imagine that my God would keep that desire in my heart. I know that my God has a plan for me and that does not include harming me. (Jeremiah 29:11) I have to trust Him.

And the yearning comes back.

I’m trusting God.

Praise God for a good bedtime tonight! After nearly a week of disastrous bedtimes, my little ones were so overtired. We spent the afternoon and evening at a friend’s house. The kids all played outside for 3 hours, and we even had dinner outside. They all played so nicely together, so it was a great break for the mommies.

When we arrived home, the crying began. I decided that we were doing things differently tonight since bedtime for the last week or so has been so awful.

• I let the kids sleep in the same bed for one thing. They both seem genuinely afraid otherwise.
• We also skipped most of our usual routine to shorten the time it took to get through it.
• We prayed that God would help C4 to feel safe and to have good thoughts.
• I recited a couple of memory verses quietly after we prayed.
• C4 has sensory processing disorder, and deep pressure is a calming activity. Basically, I used the stuffed animals (lovies) and squeezed them around C4. Historically, this has not been effective, but when you are desperate, you try anything. What do you know – it worked! I applied deep pressure until both of the kids were asleep.
• While applying deep pressure, I quietly sang some of our favorite songs.

It took roughly 15-20 minutes for both kids to fall asleep. I know that keeping routines is important to kids with SPD, but I think now we are changing the routine based on bedtime tonight.

I have to thank my Twitter friends for all of their support and prayers tonight. As you know if you’ve been following me, bedtime has been a nightmare around here lately. It started with the “big kid” bed switch. Then we went on vacation. Now we seem to have some fear at bedtime. It has been heart wrenching, and we are all feeling helpless. Even A2 has been trying to help C4 through this. They both fell asleep on the floor next to each other with all of their “lovies” strewn about. It is so sweet!

Tonight I asked the “Twitterverse” to pray for my little ones in the midst of the chaos. (God created us to be in relationship with others. It is amazing how He is using technology to facilitate that!) I am truly grateful for the prayers and advice that I got tonight when I reached out. God did answer those prayers as the kids settled down after over an hour of tantrums. Although they needed another hour to fall asleep, at least they were quietly resting.

I also asked my Twitter friends for some memory verses for a 4 year old who is afraid to go to sleep alone. Here is what I was sent: John 14:27, Philippians 4:6 (NLT), Psalm 119:105, & Isaiah 41:10. These are great verses! I am going to help C4 to memorize these verses. We will pray through them together. I will pray through them during my quiet time.

The fear is very real for C4 as is my anxiety about the whole thing. The tantrums are awful, and there is nothing rational about the situation. Our family is praying through this difficult time. I feel powerless, so I pray. I know that my God is ever present and cares about everything in my life. I know that He will use this as a way to teach our family more about Him. I look forward to seeing Him be BIG.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do?

We had one of those gut wrenching bedtimes tonight. C4 is suddenly terrified to sleep alone and wants the door open or someone to snuggle with. A2 gets out of bed to test the limits and won’t sleep if the door is open. They share a room. When one misbehaves, the other feeds off of the behavior. Disciplining one causes the other to fall apart. What is a mom to do?

On one hand my heart aches for my precious child. On the other hand I know that kids need to listen to their parents. When I am faced with this kind of situation, I cannot think clearly. Of course, my education and experience tell me one thing while my maternal instincts say yet another.

Education: “Give clear expectations. Explain the consequences clearly. Don’t back down!”

Instincts: “Snuggle and hug that child. Be encouraging and reassuring.”

Education: “Sleep will solve the problem.”

Instincts: “Sometimes you have to break the rules because your baby needs Mommy.”

Thankfully God steps in and helps us out. He leads the way if we let Him. We decided to pray. A2 started praying an incoherent prayer. (Thankfully God understands!) Then I got C4 started with asking God for help. “God, I feel sad and scared tonight. I keep having bad thoughts. I want to sleep because I am so tired, but I can’t fall asleep. Please help me to concentrate on good things. Amen.” What a beautiful prayer!

I must say that I wanted the answer to come sooner than it did. I was not able to keep it together and got angry. However, God helped us out. I had tried to settle everyone down on my own for about an hour and couldn’t do it anymore. My hubby had to take over. I have no idea what happened in that bedroom, but everyone went to sleep after Daddy left. Peace.

My lesson today is that I cannot parent my children alone. Daddy is my partner, and God is the boss! You win again, Lord! When will I learn this lesson?

It was a bad day today. I was feeling sad, overwhelmed, and incompetent. Have you had days like that? I called my poor hubby today and just cried about it. Then I called a friend and took the kids over there to play this afternoon. I felt better because I got out of the house, had a friend to chat with, and the focus was not on me because the kids were able to play with their friends. Was that the right solution? At least my mind was off of my problems!

After reflecting on the day, I realize that I should have gotten on my knees to pray before I did anything. The other things that I did were good and helpful, but I forgot about my God who loves me. This was an opportunity for me to pour my heart out to Him and let Him comfort me. (2 Corinthians 1:3,4) Instead, I turned my back on Him. I cannot do that because I cannot be a wife, mother, and servant of Christ without my Lord and Savior. I need Him above all other things and all other people. So often I forget about that.

Lord, remind me to come to You first when I am struggling. I do not have to go it alone and on my own strength. I want to rely on Your strength. You tell us that your burden is light. (Matthew 11:30). I want to take your yoke and lighten my burden, Lord. Please teach me to do that. Amen

My husband and I have been together for what seems like forever – 12 years. We met when I was 19 and in college still. In retrospect, in many ways I am glad that I met him when we were both so young. We have been through many life changing events as a couple and really have grown up, so to speak, together. We don’t have to go into long explanations about our opinions or what happened in our families long ago. We even accepted Christ and got baptized together, so we know what we were both like before we were saved. This means so much to me and to us as a couple.

Sometimes, though, knowing someone for so long means that your old baggage gets carried around for the rest of your relationship. You both leave things unresolved, or you regret past mistakes and haven’t forgiven each other. The way that you as a couple solve problems may not have been very healthy in the past, and that behavior pattern might still haunt you now.

Then there is the inevitable transition to parenthood that turns your world upside down. As a couple you are used to doing things a certain way, or you can ignore and avoid chronic problems in your relationship when it is just the two of you. Once a little one arrives on the scene, though, things change. You cannot ignore your problems anymore. Things that seemed like minor issues before are magnified now because of lack of sleep and increased stress. The weak parts of your relationship are stretched to the limit. Having children forces you to take a long look at your marriage. What have we done about the stressful situations that test our relationship?

E and I have found that prayer is by far one of the most effective ways to make changes in our marriage. On the day we got married, we invited God into our relationship. Our marriage is built on the rock called Jesus, so we need to let Him do the work that we cannot do ourselves. For me personally it has meant that I pray for my husband, our marriage, and for me as a wife regularly. I ask God to change our hearts and to be ever present in our marriage. I have read and reread scripture (Genesis 2:24; Ephesians 5:21-33) about the marriage relationship. E and I also pray together for each other at least 4 nights a week. We continually work on those areas that we find causing the most problems. We also try to have time alone without our children. Although we value family time, we know that we will continue to be married even after the children have left our home. It is essential for us to have a solid relationship because without that, there really is no family and we will be left with nothing after the children are grown.

I hope that this week you and your husband can find some time to pray with each other and for each other as well as spend some time alone building a solid marriage on the Rock.