My Life Lessons

Now to continue along the lines of my last post.

I believe more and more every day that God has given me a rambunctious toddler to teach me more about myself and my relationship with Him. Here are just a few of the lessons:

1. Stop that or you'll get hurt.
I can't count how many times a day I have to say that to Bethany. She's seeing how high she can leap off the sofa. She's trying to climb the bookshelf. She's trying to hang from the clothing rack in the grocery store. She's running out of the bathroom still wet from the bath. She's... and the list is endless. So often I have heard the response "No I won't Mommy!"
It often ends in a crash and crying and me giving kisses and bandaids to make it all better, or discipline to teach her that she can't just do whatever she wants and that there are boundaries for a reason. I try to end each in a teaching moment.
Isn't this so much like our relationship with the Lord? "Melysa, don't do that... you'll get hurt!" "No I won't God... I know best...blah blah blah."
It becomes so much easier to understand the importance of boundaries and rules when you see your own sinful nature reflected in your toddler whom you would do anything to protect.

2. If you love me keep my commandments!
The words, "I love you!" are said and meant all the time. It's probably the most common phrase in our house second only to, "Bethany, stop that or you'll get hurt!" ;)
Joel and I say it oftenand as a result, Bethany also says it often. We will be sitting at the dinner table and Bethany will sweetly turn to Joel and say, "I love you Daddy." A few moments later when she has yet to take a bite of food, Joel will ask her to eat her dinner please. Her response often is to just continue with not eating, or sometimes when feeling bold, to outright refuse. We have often had to explain that when you say that you love someone, you need to show it by being nice to that person, because just saying it doesn't mean anything unless it goes together with nice actions. For mommy and daddy you can show that by listening and doing what we say. It brings a whole new understanding to keeping his commands if for no other reason then to show our love. Just a note, Bethany shows her love genuinely all the time but somethimes the actions and words don't line up. We confess to love God, our actions need to show it both to Him and to the world.

Here's a big one that follows closely to the last one:
3. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
In Bible times, sacrifices were not only a law by God but they were also gifts or offerings to God to show gratitude and love. Here's a common scenario (I notice it more often with Joel as she is more affectionate with him most of the time): Bethany has not been listening well or disobeying and she can sense that punishment is gonna come her way if she keeps up. Instead of changing her ways to avoid the discipline she will come running up and want to hug/kiss/cuddle with us. This is her way of showing love to us but at the moment, the last thing we will feel like doing is cuddling with her as she has been disobeying and has yet to change her ways and obey. In that moment, all I need from her to show her love is her obedience and that is far better than sacrifice.

4. Sometimes the answer is just "No."
Not so ironically Bethany and I have just had it out over something I have said no to. Often it results in lots if crying and difficulty in accepting that as the answer, even if there is a perfectly good reason. The other thing she does is just to keep asking and asking and asking and asking and... you get the idea. The other day I made the mistake of telling her she would be visiting a friend's house in a few days. She got very excited and I guess she had understood "in a few days" to mean "after your nap." She woke up from her nap and asked about when we would be going. I explained that it was not yet but after 2 more sleeps. She was upset and kept asking if we could go now and my answer was always the same. After some crying she came up, composed herself and said, "Mommy, I just want to ask you one last time. Can I go to his house now?" When my answer was the same that was all she could take and fell to the floor and cried (she's a bit of a drama queen for those of you who don't know her). At the time all I could do was laugh (not really the best response) because it was like she had convinced herself that just because she asked again that the answer was going to be different.
That is just so much like me when God says no to something I don't understand and how often I have asked him over and over unable to let go.

5. Keep a childlike faith
The first four have been negative... this one is positive. By the way, this probably paints a not very nice picture of my little girl. She is actually a very sweet, loving, caring, and polite little girl too. Like any toddler, she has her ups and downs, good days and bad days.

Bethany has such an easy time believing what she learns about Jesus. She often tells me that: "Jesus is full of love and Jesus loves me... and he loves you too, mommy."
"Jesus is always with me, mommy, even though I can't see Him."
"God would never let anything bad happen to me, He is always there."
"Jesus hears everything I say to Him."

We have always had two fairly dim flower lamps in Bethany's room that we leave on all night. One night I forgot to turn them on when I tucked her in and she called me back in to turn them on because "otherwise the monsters and bugs won't go away." Then she suddenly looked at me and said, "But I don't have to be afraid because Jesus is always here with me and he won't ever leave." then she smiled and snuggled down into bed completely at peace and confident that Jesus was there.

Wow, I've gone on and on today. These are just a few of the lessons God is using mommyhood to teach me. I really should get going and get on with my day.

Love and Peace,
M

P.S. I'm sure that sometimes God must feel like he's running a daycare center or something.