OATMEAL EATERS

The other day I was having oatmeal with my little girl. We've been working on big girl things, sitting at the big girl table, eating with a spoon by herself...you know 'big girl' things. I'm watching her shoveling up the oatmeal, way too much, she begins to move the loaded spoon in the direction of her face, but not quite to her mouth, "plop", oatmeal lands on her pjs. Another couple of failed attempts and she begins to get a little anxious for oatmeal and decides to ditch the spoon and just go with what she know...

I decide to step in and show her the mechanics of using the spoon. So like many moms before me have done, I take her spoon and begin to mime my eating an invisible bowl of oatmeal. And before I can even exclaim how great my oatmeal is she YELLS at me! She yells at me in her little way and then takes the spoon from me. She then in a way to show me she can do it, begins to try again...

The oatmeal ended up just about everywhere else except her mouth...

 And I'm looking at this oatmeal covered little girl of mine, determination in her eyes, determined to do it on her own and it hits me...that's exactly what I would do.  She is just like me! What some would call stubborn, we affectionately call determined, or strong willed. I'm looking at this little smaller version of me, proud of the genes I've passed on, then suddenly a flashback of everything I've ever put my parents through floods back to me and I think "What have I done?"

I will tell you this...she did finish all that oatmeal. 

 

Today's Reflection:

I love my little girl. In all honesty I'm not scared about her being a little strong willed, I find it quite endearing. If this is a trait God decided she would need or should have when he molded her in my womb, when he designed her, wonderfully created her I can't help but find it endearing. If you think about how intricate the human body is, how amazingly God put ever piece of us together, how could he overlook the traits he would give us from each parent? He made each of us for a purpose.

 

Sometimes we look at ourselves and our traits that others might not quite get and think that they are bad traits or habits. Instead, why not see how we could use them purposefully? It's like when you find a screw on the floor, some might want to just toss it, but some might say "Wonder, what this is for?"

 

I'd like to think it has a purpose...better not toss it!

 

Lord, thank you for my little girl, for knitting her together and forming every little bit of her.

 

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

-Psalm 139:14-15