patience, please? Please? PLEASE??!

C'mon.

I have heard people say you shouldn't pray for patience because God will serve you up plenty of ... ahem, opportunities to practice patience. And maybe tearing our hair out. Geez, God, way to kick us while we're down...

I don't really think God does that... lol... but I am praying for patience these days. Maggie is such a sweet and loving and silly and smart little girl, but at bedtime she transforms into the most persistent, rotten and insane little thing. She fights and fights. No rationality will do. We try ignoring. We try setting boundaries. We try cuddling to meet her needs. We try talking about it. We try reciting the rules. We try praying with her for peace. We try... we try... we try...

And we're tearing our hair out.

Some of these things work. Sometimes. Some nights. For the last several, nothing has worked until we're all miserable/screaming/in tears. Nobody is winning.

So I pray for patience: that I may not lose it with her... that I may look at her and only love her... that I may put myself in her shoes and feel compassion... that I may be firm and gentle and not regret the words that come out of my mouth far too easily... that she may move out of this "stage" and not be so angry/afraid/demanding/difficult...

I pray for patience.

please pray...

I don't know that anyone reads this blog, but if you happen upon it and are the praying sort, please lift up a baby named Miranda. She is a newborn and she needs a miracle. Her mother lost her life in a car accident and the baby was delivered after being without oxygen for quite a while. Pray for her brain to show signs of activity - pray for God's healing in her life. Her family's heart is broken and her daddy needs her so much right now.

I have been a mess about this. It just reminds me that we never do know what might happen from day to day and that life is such a precious precious gift.

Please. Please pray for her and for her family.