
A typical morning may start like this:
Child 1: “Mom, can we have chocolate pudding for breakfast?’
Me: “No, it’s not a healthy breakfast.”
Child 1: “Then can we have vanilla pudding?”
Child 2: “Mom, I got already poured the milk in the pan with the chocolate pudding. Can we have chocolate pudding?”
Me: “No.”
Child 2: “You’re not being a very good steward if you throw out the pudding.”
Child 3: “I want chocolate pudding.”
Me: “No.”
Child 3: “I WANT CHOCOLATE PUDDING! I WANT CHOCOLATE PUDDING! I WANT CHOCOLATE PUDDING…”
Child 4: “Hey, Tyler, go ask Mom if we can have chocolate pudding for breakfast.”
Me: “I heard that.”
I have 4 children with vastly distinct personalities. All were raised in the same home with the same parents, but are all unique. Raising them in a manner that allowed them their differences and cultivated their strengths while maintaining my sanity was a challenge. I was not a Christian when I first became a parent. God graciously saved my husband and me soon after the birth of our second child. I wanted to be the perfect parent to give God glory. While my motive may have been pure, the goal disregarded my, and their, fallen natures.