God of this Family

I can clearly remember my mom telling me, “I can’t wait until you have your own daughter who drives you crazy someday…” Well, I suppose she can rejoice because that day has officially arrived.

I miss the days when she would crawl up into my lap and ask me to read her a story, or when she helped me in the kitchen and didn’t care about whether she chipped her nail polish. I remember the times when she thought I could solve all her problems, and dry all her tears. Now she’s almost as tall as I am, and no longer fits in my lap. She tells me I don’t know anything and can’t understand her feelings. She’s not my little girl anymore…

A friend suggested I text her, because she might understand that method of communication better. Ahhh… spoken like a mom of a tween

We definitely seem to communicate better when we take the time to write to each other. In fact, we have an ongoing notebook in which we write to each other. The first entry dates back several years. Sometimes we go for months without needing the notebook, but lately the opposite is true.

My younger daughter has a made-up language she uses with a friend, so the parents can’t figure out what is being said. Yesterday, it seemed like my older daughter and I were each speaking a different language because neither of us could make the other understand.

I was particularly frustrated when I realized it was time to pile the four girls into the van and make the drop-offs at various softball fields. But as I turned on the car, I was instantly calmed by a particular song playing on the radio: Chris Tomlin’s version of God of this City. And as I started to sing along, I found myself switching up the words a bit, like this:

You’re the God of this family
You’re the King of these children
You’re the Lord of this household
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this family
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this family

Friends with older kids keep reminding me this this too shall pass, and eventually my daughter will lose the extreme moodiness (and maybe even the ability to shoot daggers out of her eyes at the drop of a hat) in favor of a more civilized mother-daughter relationship. Maybe it will take her having daughters of her own (she tells me she will never punish her own children because that is just plain MEAN ). I hope it happens sooner, but in the meantime I’ll just try to keep singing, “Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this family…”

P.S. If you haven’t heard the story behind this great song, check out the video below:
The story behind God of this City

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