Praying for my Buster

Buster

That's his self-chosen Mystery Ranger name.

Though I don't focus my blog on writing about him all the time, he and his daddy are truly the two men I spend the most time with and think about the most in my day to day life---as it should be.

One of my thoughts about him is, "Am I/are we leading and training him as I/we should be to become the man he needs to be in order to live confidently and successfully in this world as living for God and not for men?"

I do pray for him (and for my husband) daily, especially on my 24-mile-long bridge I drive to and from work every day.

Yes, I pray for him, but sometimes I just don't know what to pray...and that is okay.

However, thanks to Brooke McGlothlin who wrote the practical and amazing e-book Warrior Prayers - Praying the Word for Boys in Areas They Need It Most - I am now taking part in her challenge to intentionally devote 21 Days of Prayer for Sons - for MY son.

Brooke posts daily (on weekdays) a new topic to pray about concerning our sons.  Not only that, but she also guides us to go to her e-book Warrior Prayers (which only costs a little over $5) and pray the ten short scripture-based prayers for that topic for our son.

The first day was to pray for Obedience --- boy do we need to pray for our sons'/children's obedience!  (And ours, too, while we're at it!)  So, an example of a prayer she has in her book for that is "May Buster obey his parents in the Lord, for this is right (Ephesians 6:1)."  And another is, "May Buster obey his leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over his soul, as those who will have to give an account.  Let Buster do this with joy and not groaning (Hebrews 13:17)."  And one more I really like, "May we be full of joy at Buster's obedience (Romans 16:19)."

See there, that was easy!  We all just prayed three of the ten prayers over my son, Mystery Ranger Buster.  

Seriously, though he is a very good and well-behaved five-year-old boy, he is especially struggling right now with focusing and following instructions in school (and at home).  Typical age-related issues, but still something we are dealing with and training him about on a daily basis.

I admit, I just realized last night that I wasn't following the challenge correctly.  Instead of praying over a different topic each day, I have accidentally providentially been praying over that obedience thing every day for the past week!  Guess God knew where my focus needed to be this week.

And, in turn, we went from having a couple of lower daily behavior grades early in the week to having excellent behavior grades for two days in a row!  (We shall see what today's turns out to be...)

Just because I am praying for him as part of this challenge, I do not expect perfection.  I know he will still be his five-year-old human self and I will still be my ___-year-old human self.  ;-)  However, I do know that I have a focus of some things to pray over him for several days, many of which I may not have thought to pray about on my own.  (Thanks, Brooke!)

Now, I just have to tell you what this silly Mystery Ranger Buster did to me this week (and to a couple of others after me).



I picked him up from school one day and asked how his day went.  (Mind you I have been praying for him to learn obedience for a few days now.)

He appeared down and maybe even sad or tired.

He said, "I don't know."



I asked, "Did something happen today that made you have a bad day?"
 
Again, "I don't know."

My response, "Do you really not know or do you know, but you just don't want to tell me?"

"I don't know...well...really, I do know."

"What happened?"

"I threw leaves."

"When and where did you throw leaves?"

"At somebody.  I threw leaves at somebody."

"What?  To be mean to them?"

"Yes, to be mean to them."

"Why would you do that?  You know better than to be mean to people.  Get in your seat and buckle up while I think about this."

As he is buckling up, I am getting his daily report notebook out of his bag.  "No, mom, give that to me, please."

"No, son, you buckle up now."  Oh, there is surely something in here he doesn't want me to see.  Hmmm...

So, on today's behavior report, I see a perfect behavior grade (Capital "E" for "Excellent").  Hmmm...

Maybe he did not get caught by a teacher being mean, but he is just being honest and telling me about it anyway.  Wow.  That is actually a good thing, so how do I handle this now?

About the time those thoughts are going through my head, I hear from the back seat...

"April Fools, Mommy!!!"

Oh.My.Goodness!!!  That stinker!!!

He has been all about April Fools since April 1st...and the booger got me good!!! And he passed along the April Fools' joke to his daddy and a few others after me.

Just had to share!  Hope you have a wonderful April...fools or no fools!

http://www.brookemcglothlin.com/warriorprayers