The Perfect Time

A portrait of Mommy, by Anna


The other night I had the chance to go out for my Grandmother's birthday dinner with my precious eldest, Anna. Now, Anna and I have had a difficult couple of days together. Any of you who have children know that these hard phases in discipline come sometimes. My smart little girl has just been pushing all of her boundaries about as hard as she can. I've been really frustrated and discouraged and at times have ended up a harsh, unhappy person that I wish I'd never met.
Well, I had really been looking forward to this special time- just me and Anna. So had my sweet girl apparently, because she couldn't sleep during nap time (not a great start to this whole thing). Well, our outing was rough to say the least. It was a family get together and Anna didn't want to mingle. If I asked her to come to me, she would run the other way and give me that look like - "what are you going to do about it?" People would talk to her and she would scowl at them and cover her face up with her hands. All of this was punctuated by "I need cake now"s in increasing volume. (This was not normal behavior for my little girl, but we all have our bad days :) Needless to say, I was pretty ready to head home when it was over.
In the car on our way home I was just praying for the strength to make it home and wisdom to address Anna's behavior.
My sweet girl piped up from the back, "Mom, I'm sorry about all the bad stuff I did tonight."
"Well, babe," I replied, "thanks for saying that. You know what though? Mom makes mistakes all of the time too. That's why I'm so thankful that Jesus came to pay for all of the bad stuff that I do. God loves me even though I make mistakes, He's forgiven me for all of my disobedience because Jesus died in my place."

"I want that. I want God to take away all my bad stuff."

Was she saying what I thought she was saying? And why now? This was the worst time to have this special conversation. I still had steam coming out of my ears from our frustrating evening!
And then I thought, maybe this is the perfect time.
Isn't the perfect time to cry out to our Daddy in Heaven when we're covered in the mess of all our wrong?

"Anna, you can have that! All you have to do is tell God that you want Him to forgive all of your bad stuff..."
And my Anna prayed.
Precious girl, I love you so much.
9-12-07

Luke 18:15-17
"People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."