Saturday, January 4, 2014

Lessons from Preschool

As I mentioned in my last post, part of our Christmas break included going to the funeral of my husband’s grandma.  While it was certainly sad to celebrate Christmas without her, the time with family we don’t get to see often was an unexpected blessing.  We held a sort of reception after the funeral service to be able to spend time with family and celebrate this amazing woman’s life.  After most of the people had left, I witnessed my husband’s aunt very patiently allowing my 3 year old to use serving tongs to help her put together a plate of leftovers.  This is a task I would have sent him away for so I could do it myself.  It’s a task that could be messy, could be wasteful, and would certainly take three times as long for him to do as it would if I just took care of it myself.  As a mom, that’s how I look at things.  I have so many things on my plate at any one time and I’m always in get it done mode.  My husband’s aunt is a preschool teacher, though.  She loves to see children use their motor skills to complete a task.  She loves to see them figure things out for themselves.  She loves to see the sense of accomplishment they feel when that task is completed.  I love these things, too, but don’t often have the time or patience to allow them to happen. 

As I was recalling this moment later the thought hit me that God is like a preschool teacher!  He is all about the process, all about us learning, all about blessing us with a sense of accomplishment when we come through to the other side of the process.  He’s so patient even when we want to be SO independent and think we can do everything “my my myself” as my 3 year old would say.  He’s patient with our tantrums, our selfishness, and our lack of focus.  And through it all he’s kind and loving and sees our potential.  He’s like the best preschool teacher ever!


I was reminded recently in a staff meeting as we were discussing the need to make up a shortfall of funds in our orphan care ministry, that the end result is so easy for God.  He can make that money appear in any number of ways in an instant.  He can heal our sickness, provide housing, get us a job, or heal our marriage all in the blink of an eye.  But He’s not like that multi-tasking, frazzled, just get it done mom.  He’s much more like the preschool teacher who knows there is so much value in trying, in using our brains and bodies, in working through something that doesn’t come easy, in taking the time to learn and grow through the task.  He sees the potential in us, He knows the end result and He wants us to get there by relying on Him for guidance and working through it with Him.  Just like a preschool teacher wouldn’t tell her students what to do and then leave them to their own devices to figure out how to do it, God’s right by our side, showing us the way, calming us down when we get frustrated, and comforting us when it doesn’t go the way we think it should.  I just love knowing that nothing is too big for Him, but He loves me too much to just give me everything I want or even need.  He loves me so much that He wants to make me better, stronger, more humble, more compassionate and understanding, and more like Him.  That’s worth the process.

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