Relinquish the control

I like control. I like it when the kids are playing the educational games that I pick out for them and eating the nutrious meals that I decide. I like to control what time the kids get up and what time they go to bed. I like to control what clothes they wear and what shoes they put on. However, as Luke and Lora get older and when Lexi arrived, I decided I didn't have as much control. Lora could wear her shorts, snow boots, and Tinkerbell dress all day if she wanted. Luke could get up at 6:30am and sit in the living room and read books, as long as he didn't wake me until 8am. Lora could get chunks of cookie dough out of the fridge for our afternoon snack and Luke could share a Mountain Dew with Bill. I've gradually had to let go of some of my control. One day last week I was feeling especially inadquate when I came across this devotion called " Control Release". At the end it said, " Just realizing how my need for control was clouding my enjoyment of one of the most precious time in my child's life helped my perspective significantly. I had known that raising strong, happy, confident children is worth anything I had to give up, but the day to day proved challenging. Letting go of my need for control was a helpful first step, a first step in changing who I've always been to becoming who God wants me to be. I'm learning to be a woman who can let go of control and enjoy the precious, soemtimes uncontrollable moments that life as a mother offers."

So, I've been working on letting go of my control.

But, I'm not going to lie. On Tuesday I got up at 5am and had the next 3 hours to do what I wanted to do. For those few precious minutes in the early morning hours, I had control again over what happened in my household. At 8am sharp, it was all relinquished again...