I have taken to instagram.
When I started out on it, I would post less frequently.
Until Grace started asking about it.
For a long time we held off, trying to protect her.
Many times we heard her say, "but all my friends have it" (which we knew was not the case).
Christmas 2014 she got her new tablet she had been wanting.
With that and many, many conversations about responsibility and the scary side of instagram, Art and I agreed she could have an account.
It has come with many rules and many nights of me screening her posts and those she is viewing.
Her account is private and she only lets people in who we say are okay.
So far, so good.
Giving a little, even though we weren't 100% comfortable with it, is a good thing.
We've asked her to show us how she can be responsible but yet haven't really given her many chances to prove it.
Here was her chance and happily, she's respected and listened to our requests showing us she is growing up.
We need to give her more of these chances to prove herself.
Like tests and her school work.
We've really tried to teach her how to study this year, on her own.
We've released her these past two quarters to do it on her own with the expectation that if the grades start to slip, we will step back in.
At the beginning of the year she wanted all the benefits of being responsible but wasn't ready to take it on her own.
Now she is.
It shows me her maturity.
It is another step in independence which is bittersweet.
Independence with Instagram and studies - all are ways to help her shape her.
She's learning she is accountable to both and she's following through.
What was so painful last Fall is now much easier for our girl.
Wow.
God is good and his movement in my girl is amazing.
