The blessings of teens

I just want to take a little time to give some props to my two oldest daughters.They are such blessings to me. Not just because they help around the house, because truth be told, with one of them I have get a cattle prod after her to get her to help at times. It is the relationship that we have that is a blessing. It is watching them blossoming into the young ladies that they are now that is a blessing. It is the honor that they bring to our family that is the blessing.

Many times over the years i'd get nervous thinking about parenting during the teenage years. I didn't exactly have the best relationship with my own parents as a teen. They still claim that I am the one that gave them gray hairs. Now I wasn't THAT bad, but it was rough for quite a few years.

With our own children, we have always been told that we have great kids in one sentence, just to be warned in the next that one day they'd be teenagers. Of course every teenager rebels and gives their parents trouble, right? At least it seems that many people think this way.

Scott and I have stayed up many a night talking about this, praying for our children and the wisdom to do what was right in raising them. We wanted it to be different in our family, (what family doesn't)? Not that we don't ever expect them to make a mistake. We just want to maintain a strong enough relationship to guide them through these years that lead to adulthood.

Although we are not all the way through the teen years and we still have many teens left to raise, I just wanted to say that I am really enjoying these years. All the years of training and teaching are really starting to show through.

One of the greatest moments was when I heard one of them repeating something that i'd taught them years ago to the little ones. I immediately thought, "Thankyou, Jesus. They actually were listening!" I am blessed indeed.

I just wanted to share a picture of my family. It is from Mother's day. I am hugely pregnant with Anna still in this picture, but it is all of us.