Something very crazy happened about 2 weeks ago. Jenna met a neighbor girl who just moved in 4 houses down, and Jenna has a new good friend! This cute little girl and her brother are here ALL THE TIME! And we love it. The kids play together every single waking moment that we allow them to play. It's cute and I am so happy that Jenna has a friend near by. SHe is so social and enjoys the company of others more than anything. It's also exciting that we have new neighbors to love and share Christ with. It's been both good and hard to open our home and heart to the new neighbors. Plus, it's a big deal to let my baby girl go, all by herself, a few doors down and play at the neighbor's house. It's been a learning process. And thankfully I am letting her go VERY SLOWLY, one step at a time. This is a good first step.
Lately we have noticed that every time Jenna is finished playing with the neighbor, she comes home with a very bad attitude. She's laughing and giggling and sharing and sweet with her friend, and then she sits down at the table with us sporting this grumpy, negative, demanding attitude. So we have been talking with her about that, and helping to open her eyes to see her sin. And then the other night Jenna, my FOUR year old, threw what I would consider the worst TWO YEAR OLD tantrum I have ever seen. I didn't even know what to do with her! She was screaming and kicking and pounding her fists. It was wild, and it totally broke me as a parent. Anyways, I am telling you all of this because it has a good ending. You see the morning after the tantrum, while we were eating breakfast Jenna said to me, "mom, I'm sorry I fought against you last night" and I said, "I forgive you sweetie" and then she said, "mom, I think we need to read the Bible more." Oh my precious tender hearted girl... It was so amazing. It's amazing to see that her little heart wants to run to Jesus. She is going out into the world, learning lots of life lessons along the way, and then coming back home to learn more about Jesus.
I always hesitate to post stories like this because parenting is such a long marathon, and this was just one little tiny victory along the way. But I want to remember it, so I post :)
