4 things I learned in April

1. April Fool’s Day is the best day everrrrr! I learned that I grow to love it more every single year. This year I fooled my entire family at a local restaurant by getting our waiter who looked like an actor to pretend he was indeed that actor. He autographed and took a picture with us and as he signed the date I said, “April Fool’s!”  I thought my family was going to kill me. It was so worth it though.
3. The “first person to share” principle is beautiful in context of a church setting. Here’s what I’ve seen and maybe you have too. In a group setting where someone has the courage to step up and share something close to their heart knowing there’s risk involved. And then watching others rally around this person and soon are sharing their own struggles with the very same thing in which everyone at one time thought they might be the only ones experiencing the very thing that was shared. I watched this happen recently and it was such a powerful experience for me. It took one person sharing openly. It took our leader to lay aside the rest of the “agenda” and instead invited our group to pray and that’s when others also pray/shared their own heart to God with the same things. May we be willing to be the “first person to share” sometimes and may we sometimes be the one willing to come along after as well.
5. I now know why my Mom never talked to me about sex. No matter how you cut it it’s just flat out awkward. I’ve read all the books on how to talk to your kids. Watched video clips and even had a great laid out plan of action for a girls weekend Sophie and I had last weekend. It involved casually bringing it up and we’d talk about body changes and then would move into more specific things. I had it all planned out and was so ready. I refused to my like my Mom who never told me anything growing up. I had to learn all I knew in my Sophomore year of Biology class at a Bible college from a 75 year old man. Epic! So, with an American Girl book in hand about body changes, etc. I show Sophie what we’re going to talk about. Ask her to flip through the book and find a section that interests her as a place to start. She actually found the book in my purse while we were driving to the hotel so this was not the time I had expected to do this. But I figured I’d be good with her just flipping through and getting a preview. She suddenly gets this grimace on her face and says, “WHAT in the world?!!! This is so gross!” And she flings the book all the way to the back seat. I kid you not. Gone. The book is no longer with us in the front seat. She says to me, “Please don’t make us read that.” Half of me was so stinkin’ relieved. And the other half was like “uhh, what just happened? and now what?”  I know sex is beautiful in the context of how God intended it and there’s no shame but I’m still just sayin’ it’s weird to talk about this with my kids. Clearly we are not ready for this conversation yet. I thought we were because of some of the questions Sophie has been asking me the last year. I’d answer them and she’d go run away after pretending to throw up but always came back for more answers and I’d give them as she asked. I guess I should keep with that method for now. Ha!!!

Parenting is Hard. It’s hard not to have your identity wrapped up in your kids but Lysa TerKeurst has really helped me with this in some of her writings. If our identity is wrapped up in how our kids behave then we find ourselves taking credit for things we really don’t have a right to take credit for and becoming discouraged over things that aren’t our weights to carry. Of course it stands we need to be training in the Truth and correcting and disciplining but at the end of the day our children make their own choices and we can’t let their choices – not matter how great or stinky – determine our identity.

Well friends – another month is right around the corner – lets take the things we’re learning and dive into another month of life together!