Sometimes vacation days mess me up. For the most part today, I kept thinking today was Sunday. Imagine my surprise and delight when it finally registered in my mind that tomorrow was Tuesday!! :-D A four day week - that's cool!
We spent our labor day together as a family...in a good and bad sense of "spent together". Good in the fact that both the hubby and I got to take our children to a park they had been begging to go to. We went and the park had been remodeled. My daughter asked "why would they do that and not talk to anybody???" LOL Apparently, the county needs to discuss important playground matters with her first. smh...
While at the park, our daughter climbed up a ladder. The only way down was either go back down the ladder (which wasn't possible as there were a line of kids behind her) or hold on to a bar and swing off. She had done something like that before in gymnastics classes - but for some reason, the technique eluded her. We gave instructions to her on how to get down, but she cried, and refused to listen. Out of her fear, she wanted to do it her way, instead of how we told her. We fussed, we encouraged, we threatened...nothing worked. We assured her that if she fell, we were both right there and we would catch her. Other kids were standing either cheering or in suspense. This went on in the hot sun for at least 10 minutes. After all of this, she finally did what we instructed, and got down just as easily as she got up.
After having her go clean her face of tears and snot, we asked "now, was that so hard?" Her response was "No. But I was scared." That conversation quickly reminded me of a comic strip:
A man was mountain climbing. Suddenly he lost his grip, and fell. His rope finally stopped him and
he prayed "Lord. Please help me!" He heard the Lord say "Let go." He said "No Lord! I'm
scared!". The Lord said "Let Go." Again, the man wouldn't out of fear. Because it was night fall, it
got cold. The man started freezing. The next morning, two climbers walked by and noticed a man,
hanging from a rope, frozen and dead, just two inches from the ground.
Well, after that ordeal, I made her do it again. And we had the exact same situation happen. She refused to listen to us out of fear. The crying and snotting began. She eventually did it though, and a little bit faster than the last time. We sent her to the bathroom to clean her face again, and my husband and I sat and talked. I was steaming mad - mainly because I don't like it when my kids show fear unnecessarily. And two, b/c it seemed as if she didn't trust us. And my husband said "hmmm....I wonder if that's how God feels. When we don't trust Him, and we want to do things our way." Touche dear husband....touche.....
What I learned today: The frustration you feel in parenting your child, is probably the same frustration God feels in parenting you.
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