He loves holding and kissing his little bro
Celebrating at McDonalds!
Sportin the b day hat
Ben with all of his presents
Looking so old!
He has given me a true run for my money though. He has a strong defiant and irrational side to him. But at the same time he is also daring and brave. I feel the responsibility to help him to train those tendencies into something the Lord can work with. "Bridle" (not kill) "his passion". "Boldness, but not overbearance". The Lord can use passionate and bold people.
I go through phases where about once a day I blow up at him out of complete frustration/exhaustion/backed up against a wall/can't think of any more consequences that work/stop controlling the house type feelings. Then I cry (and I'm not a huge cryer) because of guilt and discouragement related to the terribly distinctional way I just treated an innocent child. Also fearful that my imperfections -ie short temper- are going to screw him up for life.
During more peaceful moments though, I've found comfort in the story of Teancum (from the BOM). Teancum is the Nephite captain who runs over to the Lamanite camp by himself and kills their king in the middle if the night...after fighting all day. Oh, and that happened not once, but twice. Unfortunately for him though, they caught him the 2nd time and killed him. He was a true hero. What he did, however was the most crazy, irrational, and insane idea EVER. No one would have given him permission to attempt that. And he did it not once, but twice! I'm assuming Teancum's mom may have given him a run for her money too!
