Love for our kids...

So we all love our kids. It's a strange emotion of bonding as if our hearts are physically attached to theirs. Nothing ever changes that.

But truth be told, we feel like we're in the midst of a tough season, given my and Ryan's personalities: these young ages pull at our desires for individual time, time as a couple, sleep, creativity, logical conversations with our kids, uninterrupted conversations as adults and well, sometimes, sanity. And add in winter, and well, you now have a roller coaster of emotions at the Delp house. :)

In recent struggles, I have let myself sink into the pit of discouragement too quickly. And sometimes those pits bring about questions about parenting, our kids' personalities and well, those blasted comparisions to other kids/parents.

And today, as if directly from the Lord, I felt such a renewed appreciation for my beautiful kids. They are different and similar. Riley is fearless while Ava is cautious. Riley loves trying new things while it takes Ava a few tries with uncertain glances at Mommy before she'll decide if she likes something. But they both have fun personalities. They speak their minds (yes, even little Ava lets us know quite loudly what she wants and when); they are unaware of others' opinions and so are just themselves; they love hard and play hard. And their challenges help us grow and see the Lord, ourselves and them with a godly perspective.

And so, in our journey of praying for increasing love and growing faith - and while we love our kids a lot, I'm praying more specifically that our love for Riley and Ava would increase more and more. I'm praying that we would continue to grow in choosing the Lord's perspective in the trying times and choose to see each hurdle as a teachable moment, not just for them but for us as parents as well.

Lord, in all things, make us more like you. Help us love like you love...