Becca has always thought that she is the boss of the world. It is usually a struggle to get her to do chores because she didn't make up those rules. She knows that she has to get through school to "rule the world for real" so she doesn't complain about homework going to school, but any activity that is my idea is usually a battle.
Today is no exception. Becca shares a room with the twins. She hates this idea. I know, it's something that every sibling that shares a room goes through, but to her, it's because I want to torture her and make her clean up after her sisters. Daddy is not at fault because she believes that Daddy wants her to have her own room, but I don't want to give up the phantom "extra space" that I am hiding somewhere. I asked the girls to go clean their room. This is a daily activity, so it seems like it should be expected, but apparently it's a shock to the girls every day.
When the girls clean the room all together, usually it means that Becca is yelling at the twins to pick up their stuff, then I have to go in and speak to Becca about her attitude. Daily. The twins don't listen to her when she's yelling anyway, so I don't know why she continues. Still, it's a conversation that ends in prayer every day.
Today was interesting. Becca (who is under the firm belief that I know very little and am only the boss because Daddy isn't in the room to tell me differently) finished the conversation with "Mom, you wouldn't understand! It's just so hard to be always right when no one listens to me!"
I would have laughed, but that doesn't help the attitude.
My response: "You're right, I wouldn't know that feeling, but I'm pretty sure you don't either."
There was a pause. A long pause. A pause in which she went to her room and cleaned without a word. Not a word to Ali and Zoe (who weren't doing anything but sitting and watching Becca-which they got in trouble for later, but that's a whole different subject). Nothing.
Becca came back to me after her room was clean, gave me a hug, and said, "Alright, I guess God is the only one who knows that feeling."
My child was humbled by God. Nothing I said was new to her. She has heard me state that I don't know everything before, so nothing I said made any difference to her.
It was bedtime, and I had another issue on my hands with Micah at that point, so I couldn't go into any further conversation with her on the subject, but I knew that the Holy Spirit was working in my daughter's life tonight. Cool, huh?
Becca and I pray together quite often these days. Our relationship is not the greatest still, but we are working on it. Honestly, I was at the end of my rope with her before she made a decision to follow Christ. I still have a bit of a power struggle, but I have brought out her Bible and shown her things and she frowns and obeys. Before I would hear things like "I don't like God, then." "I don't want to make God my boss if He is going to say things like that." It was really hard to watch. Now, Becca chooses to obey. It's not me she obeys, really, but she knows that God has my back so she's going to have to deal with me for a while.
