The Wading Pool

As parents of a 3 year old, my wife and I are on the fast track to sanctification.  Never been there?  Trust me.  You want to deal with issues of sin and the fallen nature in your life?  Have a kid.  And believe me, when you do, you’ll see every thing you’ve ever done in a new light.  And magnified.  There’s nothing quite like seeing your sins on your kids.  Humbling isn’t quite big enough a word.  We give them more than looks, folks.

One of the things my wife and I are currently working on with our oldest daughter is “first time obedience.”  When we ask her to do something, we want her to obey the first time we ask (I guess that’s obvious, no?).  We don’t want to have to count to three and have her come running on three.  We don’t want her to wait.  We want her to “listen and obey” the first time.

Uh….yeah.

And, as always, when she fails to do so, we have to deal with it, and as I’m hearing myself say “Honey, why don’t you do what daddy wants the first time?”, I can’t help but feel like God is going “Uh Jr.?  I should ask you the same thing!”  When I look at my little girl, I realize that she is saddled with the unbelievable burden of original sin that we are all carrying.  And I have to remember that.

And I have to remember that God expects no less than first time obedience from me.   I have to remember that while I’m working on getting my daughter to obey her earthly father, God is working on me to obey Him.  Why should I expect her to listen to her dad if I’m not listening to mine?