Parenthood and Prayer

Sometimes, parenting can be exhausting.

A few months ago, Stella was getting to the age where she could start to communicate small things. She started throwing mini tantrums when she would come up to me an pull on me, but I could not understand what she wanted.

So we started working on teaching her basic signs and words for her to associate with the things she wanted.

It took us forever for her to associate hungry with moving her arms in a certain way. Same with basic things like thirsty and please,

After a lot of work on our part as parents, we knew that she understood how to communicate the most common things she needed.

And yet there were some days she would STILL throw a tantrum on the floor, rolling around, whining with this "woe is me attitude"

I literally wanted to yell at her, "You know how to communicate with me!!! If you would just TALK to me, if you would just communicate with me I could help you! I could give you what you want."

This age and stage had been one of my harder challenges of parenthood thus far.

And then I had an epiphany.

I hadn't been praying very constantly lately. And I was a more frustrated mommy.

I can just imagine Heavenly Father was up there saying the EXACT same thing to me! "You know how to communicate with me!!! If you would just TALK to me, if you would just communicate with me I could help you!"

What parent, when they ask their child to say "I'm Hungry!" and then the child does just that... then goes on to say- NOPE! TOO BAD! But some parents may say- "you need to wait until dinnertime, we just had a snack." God sometimes makes us wait.

I was so caught up in the "woe is me, my life is hard." That I forgot to even ask for for help. I forgot to let Heavenly Father know how I felt, and what I needed help with. How can he help us if we don't ask? Even though he is an all knowing Heavenly Being, and knows what we need before we ask it. There is something about vocalizing it that teaches us to be better, and gives him the ability to do so.

Daily Prayer has made a huge difference in our home. If anything, I feel closer to Heavenly Father as a parent, and I want to make it easier for him to bless me and my family, by letting him know our hopes, dreams, and needs.