Bring it to Me | Being Refined

Is it just me, or is parenting a refining process?

Much like marriage, it exposes our sinful tendencies, our pride, our selfishness.  Or maybe it's just me, finding myself on my knees, pleading with God for more patience, more love, more selflessness.

And there are those times when I see little glimpses of God's feelings toward me.  It is always so comforting to know that God sees us as His children, and that because of Jesus, he sees us as unblemished as a newborn baby.  And LOVES us more (is it possible?) than the love that floods our hearts when we see that perfect little bundle of joy for the first time.

Sometimes in my parenting, often when I am exasperated, I catch myself saying something to one of my children and it dawns on me that I need to follow my own instructions.

For instance, this morning I was ironing while M was playing with dress-up clothes.  She was adorning herself with necklace after necklace when she became exasperated with a tangled yellow strand of beads. 

"Bring it to mama and I'll fix it for you," I told her while I continued on with my ironing.  She didn't listen, but continued to struggle with the necklace, pulling the knot even tighter.  The fact was, she didn't want my help.  She wanted to fix it on her own.  But at two and a half, there was no way she could know how to untangle it; she was only making things worse and getting mad about it.  Finally, after some tears, she gave in and brought the necklace to me, where I quickly unraveled the knot for her.

I returned to ironing and the words I had repeated over and over to M played in my head: "Just bring it to me."

How often have I had a problem that I wrestled with on my own?  That I struggled to fix or understand without seeking God first?  And when things didn't resolve, I got mad, frustrated, shed tears.  Just like Molly.  I refused to let go and allow God to work in my heart and trust Him with the situation.  Such a simple realization, but my parenting epiphany of the day is that God wants us to just bring it to Him.

EDIT:
in our liturgy on Sunday morning:

Lord, you urged us to ask for "anything in your name."
Forgive us when we think we need to solve our own problems in our own strength.