Kids can be frustrating. Very frustrating. And every once in a while, in a moment of absolute frustration, I will find myself saying something to my children that reminds me of a spiritual truth I know from scripture, and I immediately feel convicted. I feel convicted because it often takes the simplistic terminology and extreme parental frustration for me to understand an important truth that God has been trying to drill home to me my whole life. There have been a couple that I'm going to post here.
1. On my birthday my mom got a couple of pies from The Spot. For those who don't know, The Spot in Sidney has the BEST pies and my favorite are old-fashioned cream pie and strawberry. We got the pies and took them to McDonalds for dessert after the kids ate and played at McDonalds (it was raining and there was truly nothing else to do in Sidney). So I had told the kids that they could not have any pie unless they ate their dinner. Seth chose not to eat his dinner and when pie time came around I said he had chosen not to have pie. My mom and grandpa both gave me the puppy-dog faces because I was denying Seth special birthday pie. Seth begged me for pie and I finally cracked under the pressure of my mom and grandpa and said, "ok Seth. I am choosing to let you have a piece of pie right now even though you did not eat your dinner because I love you and it's a special occasion. But I want you to know that this is what grace feels like, it's something undeserved that you are blessed with anyways." And I saw the teaching moment, and followed up with a half-hearted, "It's just like God's grace when He gave us salvation. Remember this feeling, grace feels like pie when you didn't eat your dinner." And I laughed it off because I was mostly joking. But in all reality, I hope Seth remembers a little taste of grace whenever he has a taste of pie! =)
2. My children do not clean the playroom, EVER! It has become a point of infuriation for me. I feel the rage boiling in my blood just thinking about how I will work with them for HOURS and do everything short of actually just picking everything up by myself, only to have them literally make a bigger mess in the process. Playroom clean up times inevitably end up in privilges/toys being taken away and lots of frustration. During one of the disastrous efforts to get them to clean, I finally lost it and yelled, "Why won't you just clean up the toys? It's all that I ask of you! " Seth responded with, "I know mommy, but I love you." And I immediately said the first thing that popped into my head and yelled, "If you loved me, you would obey my words!" I caught myself and at first thought to myself that it wasn't fair to put that on them. But then I recalled the scripture "If you love Me, you will obey My commands." And it dawned on me. Is this how incredibly frustrating we are to our heavenly Father? It's so simple. Just obey. The only way to demonstrate that we care is by our obedience. And if we say "I love you, Lord", but don't honor Him in our actions, it means absolutely nothing. And what He asks of us is generally so simple and easy (like picking up toys) that there is absolutely no excuse for disobedience. And as a follow-up to the lesson and what it means for myself, it deepened my resolve to teach my children how to obey completely now, so that when they are older, they will know how to obey their Heavenly Father in everything they do.
Along the same lines... a couple years ago when I was working on potty training Seth, he was completely able to use the toilet and get there in time. He just chose to poop in his pants for a while. I still don't know why. It was very frustrating and I was venting about it one night on the phone with a friend. I was saying how it didn't make any sense. It's so much easier and cleaner to just poop in the potty, I could not understand why Seth would choose to sit in excrement instead. Just stop pooping your pants!!!! My friend laughed and said, "do you think that's how God feels about us and our sin? Do you think He's ever up there just like, "Stop pooping your pants!!!!" And it became a joke in our group for a while that God would probably be so much happier if we would all just stop pooping our pants (in a spiritual sense, of course). =)
And so to sum up, my spiritual reminders from God (using my kids) lately are that His grace is like pie when we didn't eat our dinner; if I love him I will clean up my toys (or whatever else He asks of me); and that sin is like pooping your pants and it's gross and unnecessary and we should stop doing it. haha...
Note: Here's the scriptures on our obedience and love:
John 14:15
[ Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit ] "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
John 14:21
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
John 14:23
Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
John 14:24
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
What a beautiful post! I loved it. Thanks for taking the time to share some of the truths you are reminded of as you parent your three little ones! It sure is the refiners fire isn't it, but honestly one of the best ways to become more Christ-like in my opinion.
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