A little divine intervention....

I do not have the "First Day of School" post ready for you yet. There's one more picture I need to take, and I'll pretend that was the first day of school. It's been very overwhelming, challenging and often emotional. Plus I want to take my camera with me to Open House on Sunday, where we see their classrooms and meet their teachers.

Today, I am trying to find a new attitude for dealing with an obstinate eight-year-old who already cannot keep himself out of trouble at school without breaking his affectionate spirit. His teacher happened to send home a "Parent's Prayer," which became applicable to me on this day

And which I will share with you now:

Oh, Heavenly Father, make me a better parent. 

Teach me to understand my children, to listen patiently to what they have to say, and to answer all their questions kindly.

Keep me from interrupting them or contradicting them. 

Make me as courteous to them as I would have them be to me.

Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame or ridicule when they displease me.

May I never punish them for my own selfish satisfaction or to show my power.

Let me not tempt my child to lie or steal.

And guide me hour by hour that I may demonstrate by all I say and all I do that honesty produces happiness.

Reduce, I pray, the meanness in me.

And when I am out of sorts, help me, O Lord, to hold my tongue. 

May I ever be mindful that my children are children and I should not expect of them the judgment of adults. 

Let me not rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions.

Bless me with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests and the courage to deny them any privileges I know will do them harm.

Make me fair and just and kind.

And fit me, O Lord, to be loved and respected and imitated by my children.

Amen.

I read this this morning and even though it made me feel nice, but I still want to remove that part of the brain that makes Landen not do what he's told from his head with a scalpel. 

I woke up thinking about Sophia/Oprah from The Color Purple this morning.

"I loves Landen. God know I do. But I kill him dead 'fore I let him get suspended in the first nine weeks of school."