Out of Control

How much of the time do we think that we are REALLY in control of our lives or the lives of our children? Every once in a while, the Lord reminds me just how NOT IN CONTROL I am. As I think back, I can recount how each one of my children COULD have died. All three by drowining. As a toddler, Sam was leaning over the edge of my mom's pool and quietly fell in while there was complete adult supervision. Thank God for my uncle John who happened to walk by the pool and saw in underwater. Another time I was in the back yard working in my garden and I had one of those large outside tubs that we stored out door toys in. One hot day I filled it with water for the kids to splash in and toddler Grace fell in head first. It is a miracle she was able to pull herself out and I only knew what happened because her hair was all slicked to one side and her clothes were soaked. And then my toddler Jessie had crawled out the bottom of the broken screen door at my mom's, threw her favorite bunny in the pool, retrieved it herself going down the pool steps, and then was standing outside the same screen door looking in when we found her. Once again, the Lord reminded me this weekend that He is watching over my kids even when I think all is well. No, there were no near death experiences.

Sam had a football game about an hour and a half away. Grace was going to a sleep over and I boldly invited Jessie over to a friend's house so that she didn't have to go to the game. She hates going anyway and since this was going to be a late night, I figured it would just be easier to have her to go to a friend's house. THis is what I found out today.

Grace came home and began to tell me about how disrespectful her friend was to her parents. Yes, Grace gets a 'tude sometimes, but once I call her on it she will back down. She doesn't like to say she's sorry but that is another issue. Anyway, she began to recount things that were said and her friends' parents lack of correction or discipline. She just couldn't belive it. I was very pleased at the fact that she got an eye witness account of total disrespect so that she could see how truly ugly it is. She went ahead and stayed the night but she was so ready to leave and said she will look for an opportunity to talk to her friend about it.

Jessie, on the other hand, came home today after she and the friend and the friend's mom came back from the mall. I KNEW ahead of time that these parents were probably not Christian. But Mike had met them once and her friend is in her class and I figured it would be ok for one night. I should have done more homework. My first clue was that I didn't even know the little girl's last name! But I gave Jessie a pep talk and we went over the basics: call us if you feel uncomfortbale or if there is something going on that you know is not right, etc. She even called a couple of times and talked to Mike and I and we questioned her about how things were going. After she was dropped off today and I began to ask her about some things did I get the whole story. This little girl's mom and BOYFRIEND are LIVING together not married. They both smoke and the boyfriend cusses when he gets mad. Oh great! And the kicker is that Jessie was okay with it all!!!

There were several things I learned from this:
1.) As I wrote, I am so not in control and I am so thankful that when I don't see all things God does and His eyes and His hands are on my kids.
2.) It is better to suck it up and take the kids with me even if I know it may be a difficult night because they don't WANT to go with me.
3.) Just like when they are little bitty, they don't see the dangers around them. Their judgement is immature and that is why the Lord put us as guardians over them.

Well, I feel horrible. But I am so glad that they are okay and we can all learn from this.

Just don't ask about the football game. I'd rather forget it..although Sam did great and his leg is doing fine.