Parenting Trial and Prayer Request

The 365 Project has been good for me.  It forces me to remember my camera and to take pictures of the rapidly fleeting moments that make up our lives.  However, one thing I have noticed is that it takes away from the writing about our lives, which is also important.  With a focus on only the moments you photographed (ie: the highlights of life--because who photographs the hard times?), I find I don't get an accurate representation of the year going by.  So I thought I'd write a little about the challenges of parenting that we're presently facing in our lives, just to keep it real.

Take Noah for example.  (While I normally shy away from showing everyone's true colors, I think I would do myself a disservice if I look back on this time of our lives and think everything was rosy.  It's not.)  Here is a child who, once upon a time, was the happiest guy I knew.  He smiled at everybody, never met a stranger, and charmed everyone he met.  Fast forward 5 years, and we now have a moody, sullen, I'll-ignore-you-if-I-want-to kind of kid on our hands.  What. Happened?  We have also noticed a shift in disobedience from the black and white "he-touched-it-after-we-told-him-not-to" variety, to the gray "did-he-just-lie-to-get-out-of-doing-work?" kind.  The first kind is comparatively easy to correct.  The second is not.  And when we do discipline, there is zero brokenness of spirit over the wrong committed; only pride, excuses, and anger.  How this grieves our hearts!  And so on Sundays, when he quotes his Bible memory verse for the week, it rings very hollow to us who know those verses are having no impact on his life.  Noah claims to be saved, but we simply see no evidence of a heart that knows its own sinfulness, is repulsed by it, and clings to the grace of God for the righteousness that only Christ can give.  Josh and I have been driven to our knees, begging God for wisdom to get to Noah's heart.  Until we do, we are only poorly addressing the outward manifestations of a heart bent on going his own way.  Prayers for us would really be appreciated!  We were going to mention this at our Wednesday evening service at church, but this request seemed glaringly vulnerable and embarrassingly personal in the company of all the cancer and travel requests.  May God give us grace to handle this trial in a way that would bring glory to Him!