Tantrums

 

Apparently my son wants to get a head start in life because the terrible two’s are setting in at fifteen months.  Now I love my son, tantrums and all; I am all for him getting a head start on this thing called life, so we’re embracing the wailing and learning about tough love at my house.  

 

It would be easier just to give him what he wants- the cookie his sister is eating, to go outside (in the thunderstorm), to not go to bed when it’s bedtime.  It would be easier in the short term, but in the long term he’d run into a host of problems.  I want him to learn early what I now know (but still resist) and that is, that when a father (and especially a Heavenly Father) does not give you what you want, it is an act of love.

 

I still throw tantrums when I don’t get what I want.  I don’t yell and scream and I don’t arch my back 180 degrees, but inside my heart rages.  If wailing is my son’s way of expressing his frustration, controlling what I can control is mine.  I micromanage other areas of my life as if to say, “Well, if I can’t have an easy life, or a different income, or another child, or whatever it is I’m bent on at the time..then I’m  going to make sure that I get this……and thus selfishness and pride infiltrate my daily to-do list.

 

When life turns out differently than I’m hoping for I need to understand what I want my son to understand and that is, this IS the plan.  It may not be my plan, but if God is Sovereign and loving and interested in and aware of all the details of my life (which He is), than even the plans that break my heart and His ( the plans that are the result of sin that reigns in this world)  will not keep me from His ultimate glory and good, and from experiencing the planned wonders of Heaven eternally.

 

It’s not that I don’t want my son to have a banana oatmeal cookie.  It’s not that I’m a mean mom who doesn’t want to nurture his love of the outdoors.  It’s just that there is a time and place for everything and I know the better times and places.  Some things he really would like to have (like the bush trimming shears), he really can’t handle even though he thinks he could.    

  

Eventually my son stops the wailing, and he learns to accept the moment for what it is.  Perhaps by God’s grace and by immersing myself in His word (instead of my own indulgences)  I will learn to stop too, sooner rather than later.      

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)