For anyone that has ever met my daughter you know that she is the happiest, sweetest, most caring and thoughtful little girl you'll ever meet. When she's with a group of kids, if she sees a child without a toy, she won't hesitate to give hers up so they can have it. She's the most popular girl in her preschool class because she is so open and friendly. She talks to everyone, whether it be kids her own age or an elderly stranger at Wal-Mart. She constantly sings songs to God. Her prayers are long and thoughtful (a frequent request of hers is that "God will send someone to the bad people to tell them about Jesus").
For all her good qualities, she's still human. Just like everyone else, she still struggles with the sinful nature that wars within all of us. And when that nature starts peeking it's ugly head out through her beautiful features, I'm the one that has to be the bad guy. I hate being the bad guy. I mean I really hate it. I know the good that is within her, so it kills be to come down hard on her. But if I don't, the sinful nature will win.
Today is the best example. After getting her home from preschool I told her she needed to do her chores. (Yes, my five-year old has chores). These are chores she's been doing for almost 2 years. She has the same ones every day. She even has a chore list on the fridge with pictures of the chores so she can mark them off. The point is, she knows what she is supposed to do.
But she didn't. I was working on cakes, so I couldn't be in the same room with her to be the task master (though about every 15 minutes I'd ask, "are you working on your chores?" to which she'd answer, "Oh! Yeah, I am now."). So after two hours, you know what she accomplished? She made her bed and fed the cat. So I was a little irritated, but figured I'd deal with it when we got home from picking up her big brother.
On the way out the door, instead of getting in the car like I told her to, she played with a rope on the front porch, knocking over some seedlings in the process. She gasped as the tiny plants spilled out onto the sidewalk. I groaned thinking, "I'll deal with it when we get back." I didn't want to be late to get Jaedon.
On the way home from getting Jaedon, Emma gasped. Earlier, when I had picked her up, she had brought home a cup of milk from her lunch with Daddy. Apparently she never took it out of the car because now it is spilled in the back seat of my car. Yay!
By the time we got home I had had it. As soon as I turned off the car I told her that she needed to go clean up the spilled plant while I took care of the milk. As I was cleaning the car I heard her whimpering. I went to her and asked, (still mad, but calmly), "Why are you crying." She said, "I'm sad because I have to clean this up all by myself."
I lost it. I did not yell, but there was no doubt by the tone of my voice that I was ticked. I won't repeat everything, but the point I tried to drive home to her was that she was old enough to obey the FIRST time I tell her to do something and not wait until the tenth time. Had she obeyed, 1) her chores would have been done and she could've enjoyed the afternoon 2) the plant never would have been knocked over because she wouldn't have gotten near it and 3) the milk wouldn't have spilled because she would remember the rule that no drinks can be left in the car.
Once she was done with the plant I told her to work on her chores. I fully expected her to sit in her room and cry. But she didn't. She got to work and did the best job she's done in months! She didn't slack. She had them done in about 30 minutes. It was amazing.
For the past several weeks I've been telling Keith that I think we're just going to have to be stern with her for a while. She's been taking every inch we give her and running a marathon with it. It's our job as parents to train her in the way she should go so that when she is older she will not turn from it. If we can't do that now, then it is a lost cause when she's a teenager and beyond.
This post is rather long, but if I don't add this last little bit, I'll feel like I left something out. The point, at least for me, of all this is that this is another one of those times that I feel God empathising with me. It's like every mis-step Emma took today God was right by my side saying, "I know exactly how you feel."
We, as his children, need to be guided away from our sinful nature and into a Christ-like nature. But, if we're not on our guard, that sinful nature easily creeps into our lives. God gives us plenty of chances to obey. He wants us to obey the first time, but if we don't he'll give us second, third, & fourth chances. But at some point he is just going to throw his hands up in the air and say, "That's it! I've had it! You're grounded!" And then we whine, "But why? That's not fair!" Really? That's not fair? What's not fair is giving everything you have for someone else and them taking it for granted. That's not fair. But our kids do it to us daily and we, as children of God, do it to our Daddy daily as well.
So, I guess, take this as a warning to stop messing around. If you know God has called you to do something - do it already! Delayed obedience is still disobedience.
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