Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Disobedience: A Humbling Experience

I was helping little Robert with his homework today and it was going so well, he had to look for and paste words that start with the letters m and a (in that order). He would look for the words and I would cut them out and paste them on his notebook, seemingly a simple task. After a while and as it is expected, he started to get really distracted with just about anything but I tried to quiet him down and get him to pay attention. At one point he went to the bathroom and came back, I asked if he had washed his hands (always ask children this) he was honest and said no (I was so happy to know that he chose not to lie, don't be surprised children DO lie) and then said he would do so immediately. He came back again drew his hands near the tip of my nose and said "all done" I smelled his hands and said "hmmm nice" well that gave him the crazy idea of wanting to go back and put some cologne on (he likes to dress nice and smell nice so people will compliment him..what a kid!) but I told him not to, I told him to save it for tomorrow when going to school. Of course after that he was really discouraged and not interested at all in continuing the homework. After struggling with him for a while, he went to throw something to the trash as an excuse of course because when he came back he drew his palm near my nose again and it smelled like cologne. I was so disappointed, so sad that he would disobey me like that and expressed my feelings of disappointment for his disobedience. Why this very long and perhaps boring story? Because in that moment I thought, *gasp* I'm disappointed for his disobedience! wow what does the Lord feel whenever WE disobey!
What a humbling moment and a thought to stay with me for a lifetime. I'm not a parent yet, but this is one of those moments the Lord has allowed me to have for growth and preparation for the future.
Lord forgive us for our disobedience, especially me!

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