My favorite time in a child’s life is 1ish to 4ish when they can at least speak some words. That is the time when they are just starting to walk and get into ‘innocent’ mischief due to their need to explore and their desire to begin asserting independence (while it’s still cute!). Two of my nephews were here yesterday with their young ones in this age group and I just think they’re great. Always out to have fun and to experience new things. I spent a few minutes with one opening, closing and knocking on a bathroom door, ‘cause that’s always fun J, and having tickle fights with the other.
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Early in the afternoon, I had the opportunity to sit and do wooden puzzles with the almost three year old (time sure goes by fast!) and we started working on a number puzzle. His chubby, little fingers held the first piece as he tried to put it into the board. I could tell he wasn’t sure which hole it really belonged in, but he sure was insistent it was going in the first hole. He kept trying to push it in even though it was upside down, but it wouldn’t go in. I told him to turn it, showed him how; he kept trying and finally got the first one in. Oh, what excitement in his eyes.
At the third piece, he decided he didn’t need my help anymore. “I do it!” he said, and he pushed the piece, which was upside down, against the edges of the wrong hole. I wanted to help him but he was unwilling to hear me and kept stubbornly trying to force the piece into the wrong hole. When I reached over to show him how flat doesn’t fit into round, he ignored me. Eventually, he did move it to the right spot, but could not figure out the angle it needed to fit perfectly and my words of “turn it” went unheeded. His frustration grew quickly as I watched him fail to get it in try after try.
Some of my greatest lessons come from children. It was very difficult to watch him go through such struggles, unable to help because he wanted to do it on his own. Even as it didn’t work, and he kept trying to push it in wrong time and again, he didn’t want to listen to my advice. For me, I just felt a little sad that he was putting in more effort than he needed to since he could have been successful if he’d just listened.
It was like looking in a mirror at myself struggling so hard to get through life my way: “I do it!” I ‘saw’ the multitude of times that I kept trying to fit the pieces of life into the wrong hole, and ignored the Lord’s advice when he attempted to help me figure it out. Like a good parent, the Lord allows us to keep trying to do life our own way, even when it makes Him sad, and he sees us struggling harder than we ‘need’ to be, but we aren’t listening.
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes… Pr. 21:2
There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Pr. 14:12 NKJV
For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths. Pr. 5:21 NIV
Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps. Jer. 10:23 NIV
In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Pr. 3:6 NKJV
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. Is. 42:16 NIV
The promises of God are real and not one will fail without coming to pass (2Cor. 1:20 ). But God will not force His help on us. If we want His help in life, his direction in how to get through the tough times, then we need to give control over our lives to Him, asking Him for help daily, for only He sees the big picture and He knows which way the puzzle pieces fit. Instead of struggling all the time, we need to seek Him first (Mt. 6:33) and trust He will direct our paths correctly.