Abba Father

Abba Father

I have been learning what God must feel like as a parent as I’ve been parenting my daughter lately. She is a good girl – most of the time. We’ve been through the Terrible 2s – which weren’t as bad as I thought they’d be; the Trying 3s – as my patience grew a little thinner; and now we’re into the Frustrating 4s. I’ll be honest – as a human and a mom – I am not a very patient person and I tend to get frustrated very easily. I have always been this way and once you add in that I’m a bit OCD about most things – raising a child touches all those buttons – EVERY day!!! It’s mainly an issue with my own child because I expect certain things from her. Over the years I have laid out my rules and expectations for her (aka My 10+ Commandments) – no running in the house; no jumping on your bed or the furniture (Does it look like a trampoline?); hold my hand when crossing the street or in a parking lot; use your indoor voice when indoors; use your manners; stay with me when we’re in a store; don’t talk to strangers; don’t pick the dog up by the neck; don’t throw any toys in the direction of the big screen TV; please do not wake us up before your alarm goes off (especially on a Saturday!!!) ; and eat your veggies!! When she disobeys me or asks for direction and then does not follow it – I get frustrated. This is much the same as when we disobey God or ask for His guidance and then do not do what He so plainly tells us to do.

Phrases most often uttered in our household are: listen, be patient, trust me, and don’t worry. Usually after uttering one of these phrases before I turn to walk away I get this profound sense that God is looking down at me with eyebrow raised because I end up saying to myself “Oh, now I get it” or “Yes God – I know, I should do that, too”. I have the same conversations with her most days and sometimes feel like it’s Groundhog Day – didn’t I just tell her all of this yesterday? Some days I feel like I’m talking to a brick wall. I can just imagine God saying “Oh Myself, I feel like I’m talking to the Wall of Jericho (before Joshua knocked it down)!” We do to God what our own kids do to us – we don’t listen to Him. We don’t do what He wants or requires of us.

She and I recently took a trip to the grocery store. She just was not listening to me. She wanted to push the cart by herself, she would dart out of the aisles and into someone else, she would sit on the middle of the floor, she wouldn’t stay out of the way of other shoppers. At every turn I had to say something to her. When I got her and the groceries loaded into the car and prior to putting the car in drive, we “chatted” about her behavior. I point blank asked her “Why won’t you listen to me?” She looked at me with a blank stare. I said “Really, I want to know!” She said to me in a huff “because I want to do my own thing!” There it was. Too often we want to do our own thing or we want to do something our own way and without anyone’s help. We are too busy trying to do our own thing that we don’t listen to what God is trying to tell us to do. We want to be in control of every situation. We want to do things our way instead of doing them God’s way. Then we try to fix our own mistakes. If we would listen to how to do it the correct way we would all save ourselves a lot of heartache and trouble. When we do things our own way and fail we have no one to blame but ourselves. When we do things God’s way we cannot fail and we are better off in the long run.

As parents we know better than our children what they should do or not do to stay safe, to grow up big and strong; to be healthy. We do everything in our power to help them so they don’t get hurt or sick. When they don’t listen to us, we tend to get frustrated. We let them try on their own only to find that they are frustrated because it didn’t work out as they had hoped or planned. Usually, it’s at this time that I say to her “I’m trying to help you. Why won’t you let me help you?”. Children are dependent upon their parents for so many things that they are not able to do on their own. We are dependent on God to be able to do things that we are not able to do on our own. We need to rely on Him like our children rely on us. We struggle to obey God like children struggling to obey their parents.

One day when we had another episode of her mommy talking to that brick wall, I asked her to stop and think before she does something she knows she shouldn’t do. Well, the next morning as I was getting ready to go to Bible study she told me she thought before jumping on the couch or running across the living room floor. Wow!! She listened. I know she listens to a lot of what I say because I hear her in the monitor telling her dolls what I tell her!!

Lesson learned: We just need to do what God tells us to do: Listen (obey); Be Patient (it will happen in God’s time, if at all, and not in yours); Trust Me (have faith); and Don’t Worry!

Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.