Ashley Willis
I feel like we’ve tried it 50,000 different ways, and after a few days, it all breaks loose again. And, Dave and I feel discouraged and wiped out. We want bedtime to be a special time of talking, cuddles, and prayer. And, yes, we do ALL those things–but, it’s like pulling teeth to get there.
The other night, Dave came downstairs after having a hard time with getting our older boys settled down and in their own rooms for bed. I could see the frustration and discouragement all over his face. He started telling me how much he hates ending the day this way with our kids. He hates that bedtime has become so difficult with them lately. And, I agreed with him.
We had a long talk about what we can do to make bedtime not so dreadful. And, we decided to try some new things like one of us staying upstairs beside the kid’s rooms after we tucked them in. This has been pretty effective in keeping the noise level down and preventing them from sneaking into each other’s rooms…at least for now. Thank goodness!
After our discussion that night, we both flopped into bed exhausted, but hopeful. As my eyes became heavy, I thought a lot about how raising children is a tremendous blessing, but it is also a battle of sorts. I don’t know about you and your kids, but there is almost always a stressful or messy story behind our picture perfect Facebook posts about our kids. The vacations, the school recitals, the sports games, school work, the holidays–EVERYTHING can be difficult in this child-rearing season.
But, there’s so much beauty in it too.
As a family, we press on through the messy, difficult, and frustrating moments to get to the precious moments we can savor and celebrate on the other side. But, what if these crazy, hard moments are something to treasure too?
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