WPTM #19: Spinnin' Wheels

What Parenting Teaches Me #19: Spinnin' Wheels

Anna is hard to play with sometimes - short attention span, changes her mind, demanding. She puts something in your hands and then takes it back. She wants your participation in what she is doing and then she wants to do it all by herself. If it's a crayon, she hands it to me to color and, as soon as I start coloring, she wants to color with it. If it's a book, she hands it to me to read to her and, as soon as I start reading, she yanks it back.

I grinned at her spinning her wheels with me in this way last night while we played with her MagnaDoodle. She can't do it herself. She wants me to make it happen for her. I oblige. She takes it back. And Rinse. And Repeat.

Now this, THIS, feels familiar, except I play the part of Anna and God plays me.

Take FORGIVENESS, for example. I ask the Lord to help me forgive someone, I forgive them, and then I feel angry or resentful toward them again later for the same thing I thought I forgave them for.

Or maybe it's about WORRY. I give something to the Lord only to take it back again and work it over and over in my mind thereby worrying myself to death all over again.

Sometimes it's about TIME. I determine to give the Lord more time in his word and in his specific presence. And then something comes up, or I just don't commit like I intended to, and I take that time back for myself or my to-do list.

And other times it's just like Anna, about CONTROL. I ask the Lord for help and/or guidance, He answers me, and then I take over the situation again, or the next time, without inviting his direction.

Oy. Point taken, Lord. Here's to not spinning my wheels in the New Year. Here's to giving it to You and meaning it.