AND when I was little, I quickly learned that those little paint pots are hard to open and close. So, as the boys were finishing up, I went outside to do laundry and yelled behind me as I left: "Don't try to close the paints, Elijah! Just leave them on the counter."
Switch the laundry. Curse the stupid washing machine that is ten years old and hanging onto life by a thread.
Hear screams....
Guess who tried to close the paints himself?
Elijah, my hard-headed child, covered in orange paint in my kitchen.
I yelled and scolded and all the good mom stuff... he was wearing brand new shorts with orange all over them. The table was covered in orange drops (that, while I was trying to rescue the shorts, dried and permanently stained the wood) The tile was streaked with orange - which thankfully came right off. He cried and was sufficiently upset and repentant.
Later, after a bath and we had all calmed down and tried again to clean the table, Elijah and I sat and talked. The conversation covered topics such as obeying and listening and not being so hard-headed. :) I brought up my own experiences trying to close the paints when I was little and spilling paint all over myself....
But then I said,
"Elijah, I am older than you and I know a lot more than you do. You are still learning. When I tell you to do something and you don't understand it, you still have to obey and you have to trust that I know why I am telling you to do something."
And at that very moment, it was as if the Lord said to me,
"Emily, I am older than you and I know a lot more than you do. You are still learning. When I tell you to do something that you don't understand, you still have to obey Me and you have to trust that I know why I am telling you to do something."
I know it may seem like I am a pro on obeying the Lord just because I live in the land of millions of mosquitoes and no Starbucks. But the truth is that when the Lord says "Love her even though she's difficult" or "Forgive him even when he offends you repeatedly" or "Serve them even when you are tired...." Wow, hard things to obey and so often I choose to ignore Him and do things my own way... often with disastrous results. Very thankful the Lord is more gracious and patient with me than I am with my own little paint-spillers!
