So, I have a wild four year old. Well, she'll be five very soon. She is the queen here, I won't lie. We all know she is the queen. There is a seven year age difference between Queen Tasha and our next youngest. Shoot, our oldest is seventeen. So when we say she is the baby, she's really really the baby. Did I mention she is the queen here?
Here's what happened today in a nutshell:
I told the queen to pick up her blocks. We are working on being obedient and by working on being obedient, I mean I am praying fervently every single night that one day she will actually listen to me.
So I tell her to pick up her blocks which are all over the living room floor. I have told her and told her to no avail. She refuses. So I did what any other sweet, gentle, godly mother would do....
I lost my temper and proceeded to throw her blocks in the trash. For real.
Then I told her to go to her room and pick up the other things I had been telling her to pick up before I threw them in the trash, too. She did it! (Seriously?) Then she sneaked into her sisters' room. After some time had passed, I went in there to talk to her. Here's why, but this is just between you and me because we can't actually admit this to our children.
I mean, really, just the thought of her precious blocks sitting in the trash, being taken to the dump, COME ON, these are her blocks for crying out loud. Her blocks that she's had forever, her blocks that she uses to build castles and says, "Mama, come look at the castle I made! Do you wanna live there?" So, of course, I'm thinking of doing something we don't like to admit and that is save face. So I hatch a plan.
"Hey, T, do you know why Mama threw your blocks away? Because you wouldn't pick them up. If you want to keep them, you can take them out of the trash and put them in the box." (The trash was not full or dirty or anything.) She gives me this look like, "You think I'm diggin in the trash? Um, no."
So I did what any other mama would do. I quietly went to the trash, picked out the blocks and hid them in my closet. Sigh. FAILURE.
This is all very funny to me (now...not earlier today during my shameful tantrum), because I can remember when I was the "First Time Obedience Nazi." My children were well behaved as all children should be. My children did not, I repeat, not embarrass me in public. Nuh uh.
Proverbs 16:18
Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Queen Tasha changed all of that. God laughed and said, "Girl, you need to be taken down a notch. You need to learn compassion for other parents with children who haven't quite gotten the hang of obedience.Oh and those prayers for patience, well here's how I'm gonna help you with that." Ok God didn't really say that, but I imagine He thought it.
What better way to develop patience then to have to practice it over and over and over.....and over and....you get it.
Something I've learned over time is, even we adults do not obey God the very first time. Sometimes, we've just gotta learn the hard way. So is it unrealistic to expect first-time obedience from children? Children...who are, by nature, immature? Yes, I believe it is. It feels good to let go of those unrealistic expectations...
Let. It. Goooooo.....
My Natasha came to me early. She was a firecracker in the womb and couldn't wait to join us here in the world. Due in October, I started going to the hospital for shots to stop my labor in August. I was put on medication that was supposed to ward off preterm labor. Finally, in late September at one of my visits to the hospital, I needed an emergency C-section. My Natasha was not content to wait any longer so I believe (for real) that she ripped my placenta off because I had placenta abruption and not only needed an emergency C-section, but a blood transfusion due to so much blood loss. It was a miracle we were already at the hospital due to my contractions, because we live far away and, had we not been at the hospital and had my doctor not already been at the hospital, I was told I would not have my baby girl and who knows if I would have made it. I had actually been at the hospital the previous day and had been sent home. Thank God for making me stubborn and not caring if the hospital staff was sick of me showing up all the time. :-)
She was in the NICU for a few days to be monitored but has always been healthy. And super duper smart.
So she's always been one to get her way. She wanted to come early, she came early. She doesn't want to clean her mess, she doesn't. I know you probably have tons of advice for me that, believe me, I have tried and not only that, I've probably preached to other moms the very same advice you'd like to give me. She is who she is and I can't change that, it's not something I can discipline out of her, nor can I spank it out or put her in time-out enough. So I just love her. And pray. And sometimes act like a big baby and throw her toys in the trash, only to get them out myself. And pray. And love her.
I'm very thankful to God that He decided I would be her mama and not someone else. She is unlike any child I've ever known before but she is a blessing and brings so much joy and laughter to our lives. I could not imagine life without her and I know she will outgrow a lot of her quirks, but hopefully not all of them because she is hilarious!
So there's my Whackjob Wednesday. I'm hoping this won't be a weekly feature.
For His glory alone,
genesis
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