Peace prayer

It has been a long week, a very long week. I think we are in desperate need of a vacation. Rob has worked 12 + hour shifts for most of the month, leaving the kids and I to fend for ourselves. I am smiling because I sometimes it is Mom who is fending for herself. Maybe a I need a Mom's afternoon off but Rob is working all weekend so that is not going to happen. I love my kids, and family never doubt that. I love the life that we live and I am very grateful that I get to stay home and raise our children. So try not to judge me to much when I say I need a break. We home school all year around. We take breaks when we need to a week here and there to break up the endless days off convincing children to sit still and do what is asked of them with out fighting, or making excuses all day. Damian is normally a good sport, which is why we take breaks as needed. When he starts getting tired of school work he lays it thick. Really think! He cries, he yells, he will spend hours sitting at the table not doing anything but staring into space. He is stubborn just like his father. There is no telling them anything when they have made up their minds. This is both one of my favorite things about all of the boys in my house. They are strong willed and independent. Unfortunately this is also my biggest problem. It can take something as simple as writing a daily bible verse to a full out battle. As much as I like to think that I always wind sometimes I am the one defeated. I do not want to make learning a chore and lately I have to force Damian to stop reading to do real work. That is hard to say stop doing something good for you and write. Most of the time Damian loves to do his school work. This week besides form enjoying cursive writing he has fought me on everything else.

So why am I not throwing in the towel and calling a week break you ask. Well because we are hoping to spend a week in Panama City in August. Where the only work that I will ask the kids to do will be to read for fun. We just have to make through another week. Just one more week! So this week I am praying for Strength, and patience. I am not always good at saying a prayer so I look up prayers to help me along. Today I found a peace prayer that seemed to fit perfectly. God is Good and he sometimes he whispers when you are listening for shouts.

Peace Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi

Read more: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Catholic/2008/09/Catholic-Prayers.aspx?p=3#ixzz1TVSrHUZl

I hope that your day is filled with peace and Love.