A Thankful heart for Answered Prayers

Ok, so I know Thanksgiving was a while ago, but with all of the craziness going on in our house, I thought I'd take a minute to share some lessons I've learned lately that I'm grateful for and to express my appreciation to my Heavenly Father for answering prayers.

I'm grateful for my sweet Tanner.  For the past little while I've had a hard time with Tanner, our energetic just turned 4 year old.  It seemed to me that he just did naughty things all the time to get my attention.  He fought every thing I asked him to do and I admit, I started yelling at him on a regular basis.  By the end of each day I was so frustrated and just didn't know how to fix things. I felt bad about yelling but just hadn't been able find any solutions.  I would get mad, the yelling would make him less cooperative and it seemed like we were at an impasse.

 I've been praying for guidance and felt prompted that I needed to spend more time with him, and really appreciate him and his little personality.  So instead of yelling when he took the couch cushions off the couch for the millionth time to make a "swimming pool", I decided that he could play with them and once he was all done he could help me put them back.  I decided that the thousand "wardrobe changes" a day was just his way of pretending and expressing himself.  I've really taken the time to get down to eye level with him and really talk to him about his concerns and I've made it my mission to see his absolutely amazing smile as many times a day as possible.  I've worked at being more consistent and making sure to give him positive reinforcement whenever possible.

The results?  It worked in ways I wasn't expecting.  My little buddy now wants to hold my hand as he drifts off to sleep.  He tells me he loves me more and is generally a much happier kid.  Other family members have noticed the changes in him as well. When I look at him now it's not with aggravation at all the things he's doing to slowly drive me crazy, but joy in his industrious playtime adventures.  I  cannot tell you how overwhelmed with love I've felt and I'm so grateful that my situation was important enough to my Heavenly Father that he guided me in helping Tanner.  I'm so grateful for his sweet spirit and for all the lessons he teaches me each day.  Our family would not be complete without my sweet boy and as I tell him at bedtime: I love him to the moon and back, to infinity and beyond forever and forever.