Who's Teaching Who

Life with Will is always an interesting one. Everyday I find God using this little man to teach me many things and today was one of those days. As parents we find ourselves doing anything we can to teach our children we sometimes say and do things before thinking which a lot of times seem to back fire, but today was a different story.

The art of the meltdown is something that every 3 year old knows well and with my little man not being an exception. At the beginning of the week I had a brilliant idea, no TV for a week(every mother knows I'm out of my mind). What was I thinking. All I did know was that every time my child became engrossed in a show he became either a zombie or an addict waiting for his next fix. With that said I knew I needed to do something. The first day was easy, no shows all day. Now he had no idea what I was doing because we were so busy he had no time to think about it and I conveniently forgot to tell him. It was the 2nd day when the volcano erupted. When he was told there was no TV, but what fun you can have with all of your wonderful toys and books. The tears came and came and came and in the middle I said something that got his attention immediately(which caught me off guard), I said "we're fasting from the TV this week." His eyes looked in my direction wanting to hear more and with questions flying out so quickly I could hardly answer fast enough. "What's fasting?" I began to explain in a very 3 year old kind of way, a time we do without something so that we can focus on God. I continued to say that many people fast from food, but we were fasting from the TV. He interjected, but this is to hard and began to cry again. I explained that it is in the difficult times like this that God wants to hear from us and be close to us so He can comfort and love us. I told him that he could tell God that this hurts and I can't do this alone. I asked him if he wanted to find a quiet place in our house to go and be with God. Now mind you I thought this was going in one ear and out the other, but immediately he turned around and ran to his room. I could hear him talking to God, I'm not sure what he was saying, but he came running back into the room with his favorite dog(Brownie) with a joy that I can not explain and with a smile like no other. Later that day he said I'm not crying anymore mommy, God answered my prayer. From that point on his focus had changed. I thought to myself am I willing to immediately go to God with my hurts, struggles, and challenges. The answer unfortunately is no. There was no question in Will's mind that God hears him. Do I believe God hears me. Today I say yes, but tomorrow what will I think. Hopefully, I can remember how quickly Will ran to the Father.