u/MotherMaryDconstruct

My son was invited to a birthday party by a girl who invited their whole class. It’s at a Chuck e Cheese type place. This is his first time being invited to a birthday party so I’m not really sure what’s considered the norm when it comes to gifts. Additionally, my son isn’t really friends with this girl so I know literally nothing about what she likes. I was thinking since I don’t know what she likes that maybe I could just get a pack of stickers so she has something to open, plus a $20 gift card so she can pick something out herself. Is four too young for a gift card? Is $20 too cheap? Help me, I have no idea.

Growing up in church I was always a real “prayer warrior”. I spent so much time writing in my journal about all the people I knew who needed prayer. I had a list of every person I knew so I could think of them and make sure I didn’t forget anyone in my prayers. I felt constantly guilty that I wasn’t praying enough. When I realized I no longer believed one of the biggest things I struggled with at first was not having anyone that I could go to with my prayers. Then I quickly realized how pointless prayer had always been. Like maybe it was helpful as a meditative practice, but nothing I prayed for ever was changed because of me. I have a lot of social anxiety, so I barely even spoke with most of the people I was praying for.

This change in mindset changed me for the better in a major way. I think in a way losing prayer made it that much more important to me because I’d always thought my prayer was making a difference, so realizing it hadn’t made me want to actually work to make change. Instead of thinking “oh I‘d better pray about that and maybe God will fix it” I’d think “what can I do about this?” Now if I know someone is sick, I try to bring a meal. When I struggled with not really having any friends I started trying to connect with people and invite them to hang out or get lunch, rather than just inviting them to church(god I was such a dweeb). When I became a mom and there wasn’t stuff for little kids to do in my area, I started a mom group with activities for kids. And probably part of this change is just due to me getting older, but I feel like I’ve become less indecisive as well. Before I was constantly waiting on God to give me a sign that something was the right choice. Now I make the right choice with my own brain. I’m not perfect but I have a fairly good track record with decision making, so its nice just relying on myself and not assuming Satan‘s trying to lead me astray with my pride or something.