Beautiful Grace

Mya's middle name is Grace.  I am so glad we gave her that name.  Just saying her name reminds me to extend grace to her on a daily basis.  She is such a beautiful child and what comes with being the oldest is learning all the hard lessons first.  She is kind of paving the way for her younger siblings. 

Today we had some struggles and I had to practice grace, yet set good boundaries with her.  Today I was thankful to be home schooling her.  We had some character building experiences that made me appreciate being available to be around for the "teachable" moments.  One of the main reasons I wanted to home school was to work on socialization skills with the girls.  I think it sounds funny when I say that because the typical stigma for home schooling is that the kids aren't socialized very well.  But let me tell you...that is so far from the truth. 

One of the biggest things we have been concerned with for Mya is being true to herself.  She is easily influenced by those around her.  She does things to impress her friends or tries to make them laugh in a way that isn't funny.  We have spent a lot of time talking to her about how God has made her a certain way and how she needs to embrace that.  We pray that truth is sinking in and that she is believing it.  But the cool thing about being home with her is teaching truth and then finding so many opportunities to help her practice those skills.  Classical Conversations has been a great place for her to practice.  She is in a group of three boys.  She is the only girl.  This set up has made her very aware of being different, which has brought to light many skills that she needs to work on.  I am certain God had a particular design for the class that she is in this year. So after every class we come home and process how she acted and how she might do things differently. Her biggest struggle is just trying too hard to get people to like her.  To the point that it is a turn off to her friends.  It is hard to watch because I know her "true" self at home, which is a sweet, tenderhearted, playful little girl.  For some reason she feels like she must act goofy to get people to like her. Today a student finished a presentation and Mya raised her hand to ask him a question about the topic.  Well....she was supposed to ask about the topic, but instead told him a random fact about her presentation topic.  It was out of place and inappropriate and disrespectful to her classmate.  This experience lead her to feel embarrassed and allowed me to have a firm, yet truthful conversation about how to act around her peers.  She is a work in progress.  We are all a work in progress.  She needed grace.  We all need grace.  I thoroughly enjoyed the moments after we talked because they were full of tender hugs, kisses and loving words between a mother and a daughter.