(This is very similar to part one, but the Lord showed me in a different way..I think He may be teaching me something))
Lessons on God from a two year old:
I have the great blessing of watching two precious children every Friday. One is 6 months old, and the other is in her terrible twos. She really is a sweet, sweet girl, but she has her moments of being strong willed and relentless.
This past Friday was one of those moments of pseudo-parenting where you look around and think, “is this really happening?” Let me set the stage:
I get to their house early in the morning before the two sleeping beauties have woken from their slumber. I get to go in and see their sleepy little bed heads anticipate the day. The two year old is currently in the process of potty training and she is doing it like a champ. I typically have her go potty right when she wakes up to avoid accidents in the morning. On this particular morning, she wasn’t having it, so I let it go and decided she could go later. She likes to wake up slowly drinking milk or juice and watching cartoons, so that’s how we start the day. The hours passed by, and as we were playing I kept asking if she wanted/needed to use the big potty and she kept saying no. Knowing that she probably did need to go, I kept encouraging it, and she kept refusing. Soon, she asked if she could have more to drink, and if I could put another show on, and I told her that I would do neither of those things until she used the big potty (such a mean babysitter, I know!). And so the battle began…
She kept asking for things and I kept refusing them until she did what she was asked. She could literally have anything she wanted if she just went potty. At one point, she was so mad that I kept refusing her requests that she dramatically threw herself to the floor, and began to throw a tantrum. Usually when she gets in this far, I can talk her into/through things if I have her look me in the eyes. So I got her attention and had my hands on her face and said “Claire, you can literally have anything you want if you just use the big potty.” Seems like a feasible request, but apparently not to a two year old. She continued to battle with me. This went on for a good 25 minutes. Eventually, she gave in, went to the bathroom and got everything she wanted.
(Yes, I did take a picture of her tantrum..it was too funny)
Later, at lunch time, we were sitting there happily chatting and eating lunch and she randomly bursts into tears. I asked her what was wrong and she yelled, “I have to peeeee!!” I proceeded to laugh and quickly got her out of her high chair and to the bathroom.
You may wonder what all of this has to do with the Lord. Let me explain…
As I was telling my friend this story (because in reality it was a really funny day), we turned it around into a lesson from the Lord like we do with most things. Call it over-spiritualizing life, but you can really learn a lot from the Lord in the little things.
Here’s what we decided we have learned: We are two years old. The Lord asks things of us knowing what we need, and we refuse. We fight it like crazy. We throw ourselves around, thrashing on the floor. We are strong-willed and relentless. The Lord looks at us, takes our face in His hands and says, “if you just do this one simple thing, you can literally have life abundant.” It’s so simple: we just have to be obedient. We continue to fight it, trying to avoid the task at hand because it’s inconvenient, uncomfortable, scary, etc. We think we know better than the Lord and miss out on life abundant in those 25 minutes of life, (or as adults- days, weeks, months, years). And then there are the moments when we freak out and say, “ok I give in!” (or as Claire says, “I have to peeee!”), and we give in. Then the Lord laughs, pulls us out of our high chair, and walks us into what we have been fighting all along. Thankfully He is more patient and relentless than us, and thankfully His will for us brings us contentment and abundance.
