Learning to love my Veggies

So here's the thing, I know God uses whatever you're going through to teach you things. However, I find that fact to be even more prevalent through parenting. Maybe it's just because my job as a Momma is to encourage  love, correct, guide, support, and teach my children how to Love God and Love each other.

This evening we had another interaction with our very smart and quite emotional 3 year old. Over the past year as her vocabulary has expanded so rapidly, so has her ability to vocalize how much she doesn't like the food I make for dinner. Let me assure you, I am not exaggerating when I say that 6 out of 7 nights when dinner hits the table I hear opposition from Ava. It doesn't matter what I say or how I compare the food to some other person or animal that loves to eat it, she is adamantly against consuming it. I wish I could just explain to her how important having a good diet is. So this evening when she started complaining about eating her potatoes and veggies I wanted to just throw my hands up and give in. It is exhausting having to battle my child on the same issue 3 times a day. Luckily for me Daniel was there to handle it and talk with her, and I just took a deep breath. Fifteen minutes later as she is still sitting at the table taking mice bites of her veggies I had a thought:

I wonder how God feels when we continually try to do something that is against his will for us or is blatantly bad for us. Is he sitting next to us at the hypothetical dinner table,  coaxing us to eat our "vegetables"? 

Bam! Jesus punch to the face! I can't even tell you how many times I'll do something with my own thought process and logic and I am faced with a ton of opposition, ultimately leading to me going to God with a repentant heart for not doing it in the way He would have me to. He is my Father. He knows whats best for me. Unlike me, He never throws His hands up and walks away shaking His head. God is always patient. He loves me with a supernatural love that is interwoven with divine wisdom. I could gain a lot by modeling the way I parent after how He parents me.

Grace & Peace

Reap What I sew

  "I reap what I sew, I reap what I sew." That's what I heard Daniel saying to himself as we watched Ava push every button on the DVD player for the second time. We were watching A Bug's Life and Ava pushed buttons making the movie go away, as Daniel was sitting back down after fixing the movie she pushed the buttons again. I asked him why he said "I reap what I sew" over and over to himself. He looked at me and said, "It's because I used to be the same way, so I can't really get mad at her for wanting to push those buttons. I was the kid who always touched everything." I laughed a little. It was such a sweet moment for me realizing Daniel's heart to not get upset with her over a silly little thing.
  The thing I realized as soon as Daniel said his explanation to me, was how I instantly thought of the incredible things he sews into Ava all the time. He is kind and loving, always willing to explore with her, patient, and God fearing. Those are the things I see in Ava already. It's crazy that when we see our kid testing us we instantly think it's because of us or something we did. But when our child is incredible, we never think it's because of what we have taught them.
   I guess the real question now is what am I sewing into Ava's life? I think I need to put more focus on intentionally showing her the things that are important to us as a family. Figuring out our core values and making sure we sew them into Ava's spirit everyday.