In his perfect holiness, he did not do what I have done today.
Today sucked. Forgive me if you do not like that term. But it did. No way around it.
My boys were disobedient and whiny. I was out of patience and fortitude. We were plain sick of each other. This house (and the surrounding parks) were not big enough for the three of us. There was yelling, whining, snapping, and crying, among all parties. I did not behave as I would have hoped. But neither did they.
I called in reinforcements. Friends prayed for me. I bought - and pleasurably drank - a mocha. And I called on all the Scripture I could recall to please, please, get me through the morning. Carry me to naptime.
And that's when it suddenly occurred to me: Jesus did not parent toddlers. Yes, he withstood and refused temptations of many kinds, of his eyes, his stomach, his flesh. But of all the paths he walked that are ours as well, he was not the stay-at-home parent of preschoolers.
When he escaped the throngs and pursued solitude with his Father, he did not have to arrange for childcare.
When he fasted, he did not have to prepare meals for picky eaters.
"Let the little children come to me," he said. But he could send them home when he was finished teaching them. And when they fell into tantrums in his presence, I'm pretty sure their mothers swooped in to avoid a public scene.
"Be holy as I am holy." In his holiness, he did not do the day-in-day-out constantness of arguing, negotiating, potty training, timeouts, scraped kness, lessons in sharing, and weary exhaustion with their little sinful natures.
But he did give these children to me.
And he ordained today.
And his grace is sufficient.
(And they are sleeping now. Thank you, Lord.)
9 comments:
"Let the little children come to me," he said. But he could send them home when he was finished teaching them.
Jesus was very much like a grandparent...
Oh, Tricia -- I love you and your blog! Any news on being published yet? I'm still working on getting a website up and running! Jesus never did that, either. :-)
Oh my goodness, that was hilarious.
And this is Carrie, not Adam...
Maybe that is the very reason Jesus was so supportive of women in a time that women were thought of as property. He knew.
I do agree on all points. I might add that Jesus might just say to you, "Oh yeah? Think I haven't been there? Let's talk about taking charge of TWELVE barely post-adolescent gangly young men who went everywhere I went for THREE YEARS. I got in the boat, they were there. I needed time alone, at least three of them went along. They were ALWAYS hungry. And they invested way too much of their time trying to decide who was my favorite. What have you got that compares to THAT?"
And I also think he'd agree that for you, today just sucked. Looks like he did indeed get you through it!
My dear friend Betsy shared this with me. I loved reading it! Thanks. This is how I felt yesterday after a loooong day topped off with my eldest being in time out over and over because of meal time issues & my youngest throwing a new bottle of conditioner over our second story balcony resulting in an explosion of slippery muck all over our floor.
Awesome.
Opened up to this this AM: Isaiah 40:11
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
Katie
So - that Katie Brase emailed me your post here.
Woman. Awesome. THIS, made out of awesome.
Brilliant. I send you hugs and I commiserate. Thank you for the hearty laugh and moment of refocus. My youngest is 4. I just wrote a post a couple of days ago about... well, anyway. Apparently, you know :)
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