Recently, HJ has been a real challenge. She is very headstrong and she is prone to fly into screaming fits if she doesn't get her way. Most of the time she's great, but occassionally she gets into a pattern that brings Brooklynne and I to the end of our ropes and we find ourselves asking what else we can do.

This weekend, there was a night when Beau was crying (he is being weened off his binky) and HJ woke up kicking and screaming. It was not the first fit she had thrown that day, but this time, she was so worked up that she couldn't even stop crying and shaking to tell us what was wrong. I wondered if she saw that Beau was getting attention by crying, or if she had had a bad dream and was having a hard time separating her dream from reality, but whatever the case, the fit went on for 30-45 minutes without either of us being able to calm her down. Brooklynne and I were exhausted from working on the house, we had not had good sleep in the past few nights, and felt like we had twin infants on our hands due to the prolonged late night fits.

Anyway, in desperation Brooklynne and I turned to prayer. First, we prayed with HJ (though she would hardly calm down enough to do it), and then we prayed together for peace, patience, love, kindness, and wisdom.

The results were incredible. HJ calmed down and fell asleep. Brooklynne and I felt relieved. And despite the lack of sleep that night, HJ had a great day (behaviorally) yesterday. This made me wonder if prayer has not been central enough in our parenting process all along. We have always prayed for our kids and with our kids, but not so much as an intregral part of guidance, discipline, and care for them. Praying has been more about teaching the kids to share their lives with God and asking God to protect/bless them--but not so much about prayer as a tool of including the Lord actively while instructing and nurturing them. I'm starting to feel like I should shift my focus a little.