Pieces of me = Prayer for them

I hope and pray that someday my kids think the same about me when they hear my voice coming out of their mouths...but we'll see ;)

It's amazed me over the past few months how much I've seen of myself in my kids. Little things that are starting to make themselves more obvious in their every day behavior that freak me out a bit when I notice them:

Mason's apparently inherited my more sensitive side. He is such a sweetheart and is concerned for everyone around him and is thoughtful of his friends and his family and worries about them. He wears his heart on his sleeve constantly in the sweetest ways. This makes me so proud and terrifies me all at once.

I am happy to admit that I wear my heart on my sleeve.  It is what makes me who I am. It is what drives me to say how I feel and make sure that the people around me know how much I love them by acting out that love. It is also what gets me hurt the most....which leads me to pray this prayer for Mason every day:

"Lord, please, please protect his little heart and guard this quality in him. Help him to know how to deal with the pain that will come with it and not lose this compassionate soul that You've gifted him with. Help those around him to appreciate how honest and caring he will grow to be and not take that for granted."

Madison, on the other hand, while still being quite the love bug herself, has mostly seemed to inherit my not so endearing (at least not on the surface) qualities.  That girl can roll her eyes like nobody's business. She's sassy to the Nth degree. And my favorite of all...she sings and talks to herself constantly...

I love that my girl sticks up for herself. I hope she keeps that and has a backbone as she gets older, but that she learns discretion in that (which took me a long time to learn). I love that she has a great sense of humor already and knows how to play a room - she's got good social skills because of it. And I LOVE that she loves music and loves to sing whether anyone is listening or not...but this admittedly can complicate things throughout adulthood, which leads me to pray this prayer for her:

"Lord, please help her learn when sass isn't ok and learn to hide the eye rolling. Help her to continue to love to sing throughout the day, but help her learn to keep the volume down so she doesn't annoy others.  Help her to learn timely sarcasm and delivery in her blossoming sense of humor and to do so nicely. Help her to keep her backbone and confidence long enough to say no to stupid boys and save us all some heartache.  Keep her happy being herself and teach her to enjoy all the fun that comes along with that."

They might not end up liking being like their mommy...but I love seeing little pieces of me in these beautiful babies and thank God for the opportunity to see them use these things better than I have!