READ: Psalm 78: 1-8 (Recommend reading whole chapter)

THINK: Our Dearest Friends,

This has been an extremely difficult year for us. Harold is still looking for work after 18 months of unemployment, I am struggling with depression and aches and pains that come with the colder weather. Every day I dread having to get up and get the kids off to school. Little Bubba is still not potty trained and he is almost 4. Lulu cries and whines constantly making her friendless and the pariah of her 4th grade class. We just found out that Harold Jr. is back on drugs and sneaking out at night to drink with the older kids at his middle school while Daisy Mae has finally made the decision to finish high school after the baby is born in Feb.

If you have time to email or call please do. If we do not respond right away we might be between cable companies, still trying to work out a system of rotating the bills.

May Your New Year Be Better Than Ours,

The Truthfulls

Did you receive a holiday letter like this one? Most likely not. Who willingly airs their woes and failures, especially as parents? Yet, if I did receive such a letter I would love and respect the sender in a way far different from previous interactions. I would wish I could be so transparent myself and let others into my hard places in life.

The parenting area that I struggle with most is the transition from King to Coach from the graph Pastor Ben shared this week. It is hard to imagine my children not needing me, not asking for my opinion, not informing me of every decision. Yet, that is the goal of successful parenting. Just as we must give a little space to our toddlers so they learn to walk getting bumped and bruised, we also need to know how to step back and let our older children recover from life's bumps and bruises.

As our role lessens as a manager we hand over decision making. If we have spent time following the Lord, our example will speak much more loudly into our children's lives than any words we can speak. Proof of this was seen at the end of the service when several high school students were interviewed about their faith journey. I know several of these families. They are transparent. They share their ups and downs. I have yet to receive a letter from them like the one above, but who knows I may.

It is great to share the victories and the good times, but we can appear so "perfect" that we are unapproachable. I noticed that when I began asking for prayer for my wayward child that suddenly others asked me to pray for theirs. The old saying, "It takes one to know one" can certainly apply here. Few can relate to perfection, all can relate to reality.

DO: Will you and I be willing to share our child rearing struggles with one another? Maybe you are feeling the need to be in a group of other like-minded parents. It is easy to believe that we are the only ones with angry, rebellious, sulky, lazy, "ordinary" kids. This might be a good reason to open your home for a growth group to discuss parenting.

PRAY: Dear Heavenly Father help me to seek Your plan for parenting. I know it begins with my relationship with You. Lead me in paths of Truth and understanding that I might love my children unconditionally and guide them towards the way they should go. AMEN