Cast your burdens

Last night  I gave my kids over to Jesus. Apparently I thought they were mine...HA HA!  As it turns out, my kids belong to Jesus anyway and they are just on loan to me for a little while.  Sometimes we hold to our kids so tightly that we choke out the Holy Spirit...what he's doing in them...what he's doing in us.  I was majorly screwing them up yesterday so I decided to let go.  I overheard my daughter speaking with such disrespect and condescension to my son.  They've been yelling at each other horribly and the peace in our house has been lost.  I realized that my daughter was behaving so poorly because she heard me doing the very same thing.  M's in a growth spurt and they are particularly complicated for him.  He starts stuttering (more language is coming), he is irritable, I think his legs probably hurt, his behavior regresses, and life is just hard for him...and for us.  I also find that I just don't like him much during this time.  (Don't pretend like you've never disliked your kids).  This has all happened before and it usually ends with us taking a trip to Target to buy longer pants...because he's just in a growth spurt.  But MAN it a hard season for us.  Clearly God has a lesson for me in it though...I HAVE to be connected to Jesus in these moments.  It is only through my time with him that I see myself clearly and recognize my desperation...my need for his miraculous power to come through and change my impatient and disrespectful heart toward my son.  And it's pretty cool how taking a few moments to jot some thoughts down in my journal to the Lord can change my whole perspective.  

This verse comes to mind.  "Cast your burdens (anxiety) onto Jesus, for he cares for you."  1 Peter 5:7  He CARES for me...so I'll cast it all onto him.