Tough lessons

It's been a tough couple of days. I have struggled to keep my focus clear. I realized that I really don't trust God as much as I thought I did. I allowed a circumstance in my life to completely derail me. I regret that. It involved a business issue and it caught me totally off guard. It's not worth the words to be typed to describe the details (things have worked out fine but there was some significant drama). However, it is worth noting that I realized there are some insufficiencies in my faith. As long as things are going well my faith is great...throw in an unexpected bump and I allow myself to get completely whacked out. When will I be mature enough to trust God....completely, with full confidence? I'm not there yet...not even close.

Today, Nathan and I learned a hard lesson. He was to go to a water safety field trip today. He didn't get to go because we turned in the form one day late. I felt horrible about it. He was upset as well. My first reaction was anger, then embarrassment, then pity for Nathan.

As a parent, I was embarrassed that I had not turned in the form on time. I remember seeing the form last week and just not taking the time to sign it. I realized on Friday afternoon that we hadn't turned it in and I asked Nathan if we needed to run it up to the school so that it would be in on time. He assured me that it would be ok to turn it in on Monday....so we did.

Today, the teacher told him that he (along with 6 other kids) would not be going because they didn't turn it in on time. Ouch. He had brought his swimsuit and towel fully expecting to get to go today.

Tough lesson. Hard for me to learn too.

Nathan and I talked about it at great length after school. And, while it was a painful blow to both of us, I think we learned a valuable lesson in responsibility. Nathan got to feel uncomfortable about his lack of responsibility. I feel certain that this teacher reminded them over and over again about the importance of this permission form. I got to feel uncomfortable about my inability to sign it so he could turn it in on time. I was distracted last week by other things going on in my life. I should have paid more attention to the deadline. As a result, I don't think it will ever happen again. I truly believe that the lesson was painful enough to leave a lasting impression.

I think that is a good thing. I emailed the teacher and apologized for not getting it in on time. I also thanked her for giving us the opportunity to learn from this. By keeping her word and following through with her requests and deadlines she actually did us a favor. I would venture to say that this lesson will be more important in life than learning about water safety.

Parenting is tough. It's humbling. It's challenging.

But, it's also rewarding.....and my prayer is that Nathan will always choose to learn from his mistakes.....and that I will be willing to allow him to make mistakes and suffer the consequences.