The last of the fall photos (for now) and some thoughts on parenthood

This past week we were in Chicago. It was so so nice to see our old friends again :) I thought I would take way more pictures than I did.. but there was so much catching up to do I ended up only taking some at our small group social.. so I'll share those later. Although Chicago still feels like home (since we've been in NY for 2 months) it felt good to walk into our home here. This place is slowly feeling like home which is really nice :)

Anyway, I just finished the book "Give Them Grace" which I'm pretty sure I've talked about a thousand times already (I definitely will give a review soon...) but something really hit me from the book as we were traveling. Jake seriously did amazing on our flights to and from Chicago. I was even shocked how good he did. When we landed in Syracuse a sweet couple sitting behind us on the plane complimented us on how well he did. Although we had toys and other things planned for him to do, it is seriously by God's grace that he was content for the full two hours. Almost every parent I know has a game plan when it comes to their kids and plane rides and we all know that sometimes they do well, and other times they don't. I wish I could have taken the credit for Jake's great behavior but I can't.

Elyse in her book (mentioned above) talks about how as parents, we need to understand that we can only do so much to instill godly, character building qualities into our children. Yes, do I want to be able to say "Jake's awesome because I'm just that awesome at parenting." Sure, my pride totally wants to be able to say that. However, Elyse reminds us that while we should strive to be loving, godly parents, A + B doesn't always = C. We are not guaranteed awesome kids because we think we did everything right. It is going to ultimately be by God's grace if Jake grows up to be a godly man. Obviously, I am going to do everything I can to point him in that direction, but in the end, if he does, I can't take credit for that. There are going to be other parents out there who are doing the exact same things as me and their child may grow up to be rebellious and disobedient (or that could be me).

I know that might sound bad. But really ... it's not. It's not bad because I am not going to be an awesome parent. I am going to fail. I am going to mess up. I am going to yell and be impatient and be prideful and selfish and not be the wonderful parent that I desire to be because I'm sinful. So I'm so thankful that God is in control. That He can step in and transform Jake even when I mess up. Elyse says:

"We have far too high a view of our ability to shape our children and far too low a view of God's love and trustworthiness."

That's honestly so refreshing for me as a parent to hear. I don't have to strive and take all the responsibility for Jake's actions on my shoulders. I desire to be a caring, loving mom because I love God and know how great it is to know God and therefore hope and pray that Jake some day will do the same, but it's not all up to me. This was such a good, good reminder for this mama to hear this week :)

Annnd onto our fall pictures. How's that for a smooth transition? Two weekends ago we went to Cider Mill and it was so fun to eat donuts, watch them make apple cider, and watch Jake get super excited about the flowers and pumpkins.