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Loving Strong Willed Children

I have three children and a dog.  I am certain that 2 of my 3 are strong willed.  I am highly suspicious that our Golden Retriever is as well or at least she has willful tendencies.  I am strong willed and my husband is strong willed, so I am fully aware that my children completely come by this trait, or should I say strength ;) naturally.  


Even though I am strong willed, I have been struggling the past few months with my younger two children.  More often than not I have found myself simply saying "No", yelling, and not being an effective parent.  I have been concerned at what I've seen in myself, but felt exhausted.  


I'm still tired, but not exhausted and burned out like I was last week.  I feel like God has really helped me reset my thinking about my children and how I see my job as their mom.  Last Thursday, I started reading a book titled The Journey of a Strong Willed Child by Kendra Smiley.  On the first page, I only underlined one sentence.  On the next, five...and on the next, ten.  With each page I read, I felt like the piece of what I'd been observing in my children were finally finding a way to fit together in my brain.


I'm going to be writing a thorough review of the book tomorrow and I look forward to writing about all of the pieces that this book has helped me fit together!
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