Refining

Oy, did we have a morning around here yesterday.

Tears, drama, arguing...

All over a song.  A hobby, really.


I've long been a fan of Vince Guaraldi, and when Kayci started playing the piano I couldn't WAIT until she was able to play a "Charlie Brown" song.  Well, when it came time to choose songs for her Christmas recital, she wanted to try one.

Or maybe she wanted to do it for me.

Either way, she said she would do it.  Then the next week she informed me that she had a back up plan since the Charlie Brown song was hard.  And right then, I knew it.  For two whole weeks, the Charlie Brown songbook collected dust.  Even after lessons last week, I thought she'd get inspired to work on it some more after guidance from Ms. Jana.

And truthfully?  She hasn't been practicing.  And when she does practice, she plays the songs she KNOWS instead of working on the one that she's LEARNING.  It's kind of been driving me crazy.

So, yesterday morning she was practicing.  We'd discussed this over the weekend, and I told her she needed to put more time in on the song she was struggling with.  But once again, yesterday morning, every song BUT that song rang through the house.

I put on my big girl panties and went and sat in the red chair and reminded her, gently, that she needed to be working on the Charlie Brown song.

And it hit the fan.

Much 9 year old drama followed, but Daddyboy and I were on the same page and stood firm...it feels good when we agree without working on it, you know?

Before Kayci got out of the car yesterday morning, I told her that I wasn't MAD at her, just disappointed that she wasn't doing her best and that she'd quit before she even tried.  I told her the truth--that most things in life are easy for her, because of her intelligence and talent and other blessings.  Piano, up to this point, has been easy for her.  I told her that God often puts things in our lives that are hard because it's these things that challenge us and help us to grow--and that's what this song is for her.

It's a little bit of Refiner's fire, maybe for both of us.

Yesterday afternoon she practiced without complaint, and the mood was totally back to normal (phew...I was kind of dreading more drama!).

Today is lessons.

Tomorrow...we'll see.

I love that I am able to have real conversations with my kids about God--there's no way I would have understood any of that at her age.  And for the record, at her age, I wouldn't have tried, either--I'd have quit.