A Control Issue

Emily for the most part is an obedient child. It is rare for us to have to punish her, but she has her moments like all children do. Like all of us do, really. There have been a few instances recently when I can really see her struggling between doing what she wants to do and obeying us. We've had a few conversations about how I am the mother and she is the child. She is to do what I say. Not the other way around. This has been a tough thing for her to accept. You can see it in her face sometimes how she so much wants to be the one in control. The other day we were playing outside and she pushed Noah out of the way so she could go down the slide first. I reprimanded her and made her sit on the patio in a timeout. She started sobbing hysterically and said through her tears, " I want to be a mommy!". I said, "Why? So you can tell your children what to do?" "Yes", she said.

I thought about how I am the same way with God. It's hard for me to relinquish the control over everything in my life to him the way I should. It's amazing the things we can learn from our children.

That night before she went to bed, we read out of one of her Bible devotional books. I let her pick out what page we would read and providentially, she turned to one about obeying your parents. It talked about the reasons parents have rules for their children: to protect them and keep them healthy and safe. When I read that to her, she said "Ohhh. So that's why you have so many rules.