Bedtime Routine

This article is my submission to the blog challenge sponsored by Darlene Schacht , Author of The Mom Complex.

 I wrote this a few years ago for our homeschool support group's newsletter and this "Mom Moment" with my daughter has stuck with me as no other moment has because

1) it is the perfect testimony to my daughter's sweet character.  She's precious.

and

2) it is the perfect testimony to truly how God "gently leads those that have young" (Isaiah 40:11).

The other night as I was putting my daughter in bed, I was dawg-tired. You know what it feels to be dawg-tired, right? That’s how I felt…dawg-tired. I just wanted her to go to bed so I could go to bed. Guess what she did as I was walking out the door? She asked for a drink of water. Something so simple, but it seemed like the biggest request I had received all day. To get her a drink, I would have had to go all the way downstairs to the kitchen, then climb back up the stairs. And she never takes more than one tiny sip of any drink of water we give her at bedtime.  

Thinking of all the work this tiny sip would give me, I came up with a desperate plan. I walked into her bathroom, grabbed a spray bottle with water in it, unscrewed the lid, and offered her a drink. She didn’t think twice. She grabbed the water bottle, and guzzled half the water. No delicate sipping, but full-blown guzzling. Who would have guessed she was so thirsty? As she finished her drinking, she said with the sweetest smile ever, “Mom, that water doesn’t taste so good.” She was so sweet about it, and her sweetness, compared to my sour attitude about her drink hit me like a freight train. My reaction was to laugh uncontrollably. Since she is so sweet, she laughed with me, and we had such a great time together, laughing. We ended our laughing fit with a great big hug, loud smooches and wishes for Sweet Dreams. I came out of her room a new woman! 

I thank God for those moments when He reveals Himself to me through my children. He was so gentle in His correction of my poor attitude, using Lydia like He did. Isaiah 40:11 says, “He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young.” I walked out of Lydia’s room feeling totally loved and forgiven by her, and as the evening progressed, I realized that God had given me a lesson on attitude. I am not perfect; I am not always the only teacher in the house.   Thank God!