Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life. ~ Prov 4:23
I believe that as a parent it is our responsibility to stand guard over our child's heart as we teach and train them how to do it themselves. I must confess that my fear about sending the boys to school at a young age would be that we would lose their hearts to the desires and appeal of the world. This morning I am feeling the weight of this fear. Here are some topics of conversation that have come up just in the last 5 days (usually on the way home from school):
1. I don't think Matthew likes me any more. I try to talk to him and he just walks away or ignores me.
2. Matthew (a different one) ask to trade chipmunks so I took him my Theodore and he was going to give me Alvin but he tricked me. After I gave him Theodore he kept his Alvin.
3. Mom alot of my friends are in love.
4. Can I have a DS? All the other kids in my class have one?
5. Yesterday afternoon he got in trouble in target and begin to argue with me. I told him not to talk back to me. He started screaming and said you just don't get it mom.
6. Me: How did show and tell go?
Jake: It went good except when I got schnook (his stuff dog that he sleeps with) out some of the kids laughed at me and made fun of him.
So some of these conversations have awoken the momma lion in me but I have kept that to myself:) And some of them have made me ask who is this 15 year old and what did you do with my 5 year old.
Today as I have thought about the conversations and how I have handled them I am thankful for a big dose of grace in those moments. Each one of these comments have sparked wonderful conversations that have all lead to our need for Jesus. And for that I am grateful. But the fear in me is stirring and what I am realizing is that I have got to do battle for Jake's heart on my knee's. I feel inundated with the pulls for his heart - questions arising in his mind such as "how must I act for others to like me?", "what do I need in life to be like everyone else? " So I know that it is my job to take him to the word and to speak truth into his life and to get on my knees and do battle begging God to make Jake love Him more than he loves this world.
