 Growing into a Ground Shaker for God By: Lindsay Tedder "Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord." - Ephesians 6:4 (NIV) Our son is rowdy. He is rough and tough. He thunders through our home. He doesn't walk, he runs. He is challenging to parent. We never know if we are doing the right things or saying the right things. I can't begin to admit the number of articles I have read on the "strong-willed child." Pfft…strong-willed. He is far greater than strong-willed. He came crawling into our life when he was 13 months old. After 10 years of infertility struggles and all the pain associated, God answered our prayers and obedience to his Word with this adorable, squishy ball of blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. We were mesmerized, overwhelmed, overcome, and felt slightly in over our heads. We skipped the sweet, snuggly newborn stage and moved straight into the crawling, walking, curiosity-that-gets-into-everything stage. Our entire home was baby gated. We had gates around our TV stand, gates separating each room, gates at the tops and bottoms of the steps. By 18 months, he could open almost every gate we set up. I knew then, something was up, but never being a parent before, I had no idea what to expect. Our babysitter said he was very "advanced." We patted ourselves on the back thinking it was all those times we sat on the floor with him, drawing shapes and numbers and letters. At his two-year checkup, his doctor told us that he seemed to be very well adjusted, thriving, and oh yeah, he is very "advanced." Queue mom and dad, quietly slapping a high five to each other when the doctor turned to make her notes. We felt consistently reminded that we were doing a great job! |
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