Refrigerator Conundrums

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22: 6 

Due to a recent surgery, I have found myself very limited in my activities. In other words, I am helpless and dependent on others to do pretty much everything for me and I can’t do anything for anybody else around here. That is totally contrary to what my life has always been so far. Therefore, I am convinced that the Lord sent this situation unto me to teach me several things. I feel like He has tailored a workshop that I can attend from the comfort of my favorite chair and in my pajamas. This workshop is a daily process of discovery and He involves everyone and everything around me to teach me.

Today’s lesson has to do with my two young sons,-as it often does.

I am a teacher by profession, so of course I love to tell people what to do… er… I mean, I love to teach valuable lessons to those around me : ) I am discovering, however, that when it comes to teaching my two sons how to be independent and do things for themselves, I am not doing an A+ job.

I am discovering that after telling my boys about the Lord, one of my most important roles as a Mother is to tell them and “allow” them to do things for themselves so they grow up to be productive men, able to carry on their God-ordained roles, rather than becoming burdens to those they encounter along their path.

“Mama, can I have some juice?” My six-year old Dylan asked me. From my seat upstairs I yelled, “go get one from the fridge.” My “recovery station” at our house has a vantage point that allows me to see what’s going on in the kitchen. So I saw Dylan standing helplessly in front of the wide open fridge not even attempting to look for the juice pouches gathered on the bottom shelf of the door. Next thing I hear is, “I can’t find the juice.” What followed was such a ridiculous exchange between my younger son and I that I can’t even begin to reproduce it here because it would take too long and I’m already losing track of my point. May it suffice for me to say that I actually had to ask Dylan if he knew what the refrigerator door was…sigh…

The day continued most in the same way, for later, I had to ask my 10 year old if he knew the difference between a shelf and a drawer as he attempted to find cheese in the fridge.

Reflecting on the events of the day, I felt defeated and frustrated, but also hopeful. Obviously, my husband and I have to do a better job teaching our sons about the intricacies of the refrigerator, the complexities of color matching, the marvels of cleaning after themselves and other perplexing and mind boggling activities, but the Lord is giving us an opportunity to re-evaluate our parenting style, and that is a cause for rejoicing. He is teaching me, in particular, not to be such a hovering mother and to allow my boys to learn how to fend for themselves. By doing so, they will in turn learn the satisfaction of a job well done. On the contrary, the repercussions of not doing so could be catastrophic.

It is so true that the Lord uses all things for the good of those who love Him and put their trust in Him (Romans 8: 28), for He is certainly using my current condition to teach me valuable lessons which I might have not learned so quickly otherwise.

May the Holy Spirit grant me/us the awareness to capture such lessons and apply them to my/our lives starting today!

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