Bellamia... a children's shop: Family

did I mention there is a STRONG possibility I will not be blogging on the weekends??? Well, it's true. The weekends have been beautiful and anticipated more and more in our home as the girls get older.

This weekend the girls especially anticipated it! You might be thinking it was because of the Fair that came to town and camps out two weeks over the first part of November, but it wasn't.

A few months ago, we were talking as a family and decided that since we celebrate birthdays and we celebrate anniversaries, why not celebrate family. So we started a new tradition. Every 6th day of each month (because that day will never interfere with a family bday or anniversary) we will celebrate our family.

There are three rules-

1.) we ALWAYS have to celebrate it that day. No matter where we are or how much is going on.
2.) we have to go or do something that we normally do NOT do as a family. In other words, it has to be a stretch.
3.) we have to end the evening with an affirmation to each person (last night was naming a certain characteristic we appreciate about them)

Yesterday was our Family Celebration day and we chose to go to the movies. We never go to the movies as in, we might have taken the girls three times their whole life.

The girls have been wanting to see Courageous and so that's what we went to see.

We cried the whole movie, or at least I did.....

I have heard statistics on suicide, divorce and domestic violence many times about children of fatherless homes and it is heart wrenching. But last night it hit me so much harder. I guess that the fact that there is a very strong possibility that my girls will marry a man that came from a fatherless home, just really made me morn.

I am not just talking about the homes where father's haven't been present since conception. I am talking about the homes where the father's might very well be physically present, but emotionally and spiritually absent.

This movie did a fantastic job of showing the importance a father's role is. It also brought sorrow to me as I watched a father make a decision not to dance with his daughter in public because of the embarrassment it would have caused. Or when he wouldn't run the race with his son because he never liked running, or sitting in front of the television after a stressful day at the office just to "tune in" to believing this is what he deserved, just so he can "tune out" what he didn't want to do with his responsibility and love.

It's all about decisions in life. We make them every day. Many many times a day. If fact, every thing we do is based off of a decision.

Parenting is such tough stuff. It is by far the hardest thing I have had to do in my life. We have pre-teens in our home that are starting to decide who they want to be. Who they want to listen to. Who they put their trust in. Where they find their security. How to handle what this life brings.

And with every decision they make, every single day, there are times I wish I could go back 5 years and pour into them more and more.

We are by far not perfect parents. And I am grateful to God that He pours His everlasting grace and mercy into our lives, because sadly, so many times I just want to "tune out".

I am so very thankful for the father my girls have. I am so thankful that he takes time, hours in an evening to listen and to guide our girls. I am so thankful that when I want him all to myself sometimes or have a honey do list, I find him playing softball with them, fixing their bikes, or teaching them how to build something. I am so thankful that he has given them the perfect example of how to love me as Christ loves His church. He would lay down his life for me and for them and I know that they know that. But most importantly, I am thankful that he has shown them the total dependency he has on his Heavenly Father and that the bible is truth. They need to see that, they need to hear that, because apart from God, there is nothing.