Water Play

Earlier today, Nathan was crying and begging me for something. If the weather is warm we'll let him play with the water hose, spraying down everything even getting himself and sisters drenched with all their clothes on. Today the weather was in the 60s and as far as I'm concerned is not warm enough for a little kid to get soaking wet outside, so I told him no. Its not that he could never play in the water ever again, just not today. He cried and cried and repeatedly said "water play"... really it was so sad and I really wanted to just let him play in it. I stuck to my guns though, I'm totally not interested in this cough that they all suddenly have to progress into anything more than a viral cold. So I said no. I said no a lot. I made every effort to get his attention on something else & finally he spotted Madelyn happily swinging & he stopped crying, gasped, declared "swing!!" and made a B-line for the available swing. He then played outside swinging and doing all kinds of other fun things that did not include getting wet, & the crying episode lasted so long that I was unsure he'd ever chose to be happy doing something else.

AND

WOW!!!!! Do I feel like that with God sometimes!!! ... a lot of times... today... Its like I'm this crying toddler totally focused on something that God is telling me "no" about and I have no idea if its 'no' for forever or not. There are so many other fun things to do, but I want what I want when I want it exactly like my 2 year old son. I stay focused on the object of my desire instead of the million other things God is providing for me. I could be enjoying so many fun things rather than this 1 thing. It's so sad its almost humorous to see myself as I saw my toddler son today. I'm crying "water play" and God is saying "hey, dont cry, you love the slide, why don't you go down the slide? I'll say YAY!!... what about the swing?....its ok, smile dont cry... the trampoline always makes you smile... do you need a nap? are you sleepy? where's you're sippy cup?" Of course all of those things represent something in my life that God is showing me to stay focused on and not to be so concerned with 'water play' while its 60 degrees outside. It might be the season, but today is not the day.

I love the song "Human" by Natalie Grant; look it up on youtube if you have a minute. It strikes me in my heart when she sings, "we gotta do better than this cause we only got one chance to make a difference, we gotta do better than this cause we only got one life that we've been given." Goes right along with the verses used in yesterday's post. I've got one chance to be the wife and Mom God wants me to be, I've got one life to give to God and my family. One life and it is so short. I want to enjoy all the yeses God has on my life, it would be so much more fun than crying over the no's.

Thank you for Your mercy God! and thank you for carrying me daily, even when I'm sobbing over "water play". <3