Should I Be Worried?

This is Asher... Sometimes I worry about him. Today he was drawing on the white board at Scott's school and he said, "(deep inhale) I love the smell of these markers. (another deep inhale) Because they smell like gas (meaning gasoline)...(another deep inhale)." Hmmmmm...

He is so very stubborn. And sometimes a little crazy. The other day I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I took him to baseball practice and he was "that kid." You know the one I'm talking about. The one who all of the other parents go home and say, "Did you see THAT kid?...Where was THAT kid's mother?...MY kid would never act like THAT kid!" It was so bad that I toyed with the idea of leaving and pretending he wasn't mine and then paying someone else to go and pick him up...just kidding. Actually, I went up to the coach and said that we would practice listening, taking turns, not acting like a wild animal, not throwing the ball crazy, not talking so much (at full voice)...and...I think that covers it.

Just when I think that I am at my wits end with him, he pulls something like this -

On Saturday, I gave him his monthly allowance ($4), and then we went over tithing, taking out $.40. I make him save $1.50 and then he gets $2.00 of "MAD MONEY" for the month. I know what you're thinking. Don't spend it all in one place, right? Riiiiiiiight... If you do the math, that leaves $.10. We encourage him (which in simple terms means "don't give him any other choice") to donate that precious dime to either the Book of Mormon fund, the General Missionary Fund, the Church Humanatarian fund, etc. So I asked him which he would like to donate to. He said, "I want to give it to Jesus." I told him that all of those things were giving it to Jesus. He said, "I want to give it to Jesus. I don't want to give it to Satan." Hmmmmm... We went through this same conversation several times. Finally I said, "Fine. Okay." And then the more I thought about it, the more proud I was of him. I thought to myself, "I am getting through to him. Even though he doesn't totally 'get it,' he just wants to do what's right." And I smiled.

Last night he was on this kick where he kept saying, "I will follow Jesus and I only want to follow him." He said it over and over...and yes, over again. I was feeling pretty good and thinking maybe I don't need to worry about him as much as I do. Then he said in typical Asher fashion, "Mom, do you fink Satan is sad that no one wants to be on his side?" No conversation is ever easy with this kid...