Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: White (10/29/09)
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TITLE: A Sweet Lesson | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kellie Henningsen
11/05/09 -
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My kids eat a little candy every day. Does that make me a bad mother? I’m sure some would say yes and maybe they are right. But, I limit them to two candies per day and somehow this has become part of our life.
Recently, I was busy getting stuff done around the house but knew that we also had errands to run. I told my kids a half hour before we were to leave to make sure they were at the door in thirty minutes. I gave them a reminder at fifteen minutes, then five minutes, and so on. (My kids don’t do well with sudden changes to their schedule.)
At last, it was time to go. My youngest two ran upstairs to get their socks while my oldest loudly declared, “Oh! I haven’t had my candy yet today!”
Talk about making me cringe! I had given him plenty of time to be ready and now as we are about to walk out the door, he brings this up! I guess he could read the look on my face as he quickly said, “It’s ok Mommy! I’ll just grab two of the white spearmint lifesavers. I can have those in the van. They’re not messy.”
While this was completely true and seemed like a credible argument, I had to tell him no. He looked at me in bewilderment. “Why? I’ll be quick!”
“Honey,” I said, “If I let you have candy, then when the other two come down they will want candy.”
“So?”
“Well, let’s see…the seven year old will ask a million questions wondering what exactly qualifies as two candies and the four year old will undoubtedly pick out something sticky and tough to take on the go.”
This incident happened before Halloween so the candy pickings were pretty slim in the house. My daughter would inevitably been asking for a bowl to put some candy corn in and asking me to decipher how many exactly would equal two candies. Then my youngest would have hemmed and hawed for several minutes before finally deciding on his treat of choice. It’s just a long ordeal.
“Listen, son. Sometimes I have to tell you no because I see the bigger picture. All you see is yourself and how easy it would be to grab the two lifesavers and hop in the van. It’s not that I want to say no to you, it’s that there is more to consider here, and for the good of all, I need to say no.”
As I stood up from tying my four year old’s shoe, I suddenly felt quite overwhelmed.
“Wow! Is that a God lesson or what?” I exclaimed.
“Huh?” My ten year old was not quite on the same page as me.
“Just think…God sometimes has to say no to us because He sees the bigger picture. We are so focused on our own little worlds and can’t understand why we can’t have what we want, but He sees it all and makes the right decision which will ultimately bring Him glory.”
I had completely lost all of my children at this point but I was still reeling. I know the Bible portrays God as a parent but yet, to have it right in my face really made in impact on me.
I want a lot of things in life and can’t understand why right now God is not answering my fervent prayers. I have to trust Him which is not easy to do. Maybe if things were financially stable for us, others wouldn’t see our contentment as such a big deal. Maybe if we had a big house and yard, we wouldn’t be as close as a family. Maybe if health issues didn’t plague us, we would become confident in our own strength.
Maybe God knows and maybe I don’t need to.
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