My daughter, Lexi, is an energetic two-year-old girl. She is imaginative, playful, and oftentimes, he struggles with obedience. While she’s a sweet angel for most people, she saves her worst behavior for her mama.
Lately, we’ve been really going through it with her repeated temper tantrums and fits of defiance. I get really frustrated sometimes and have to check my tone and my attitude toward her, as I know she is learning from how I respond to her.
[My Daughter Copies Me: What Is She Learning?]
Whenever something isn’t going her way, she has a tendency to throw a fit. She doesn’t want to hold my hand in the store, or she wants to touch something she shouldn’t.
When we are getting ready for bed, she finds it funny to run away or actively disobey something I’m asking of her. It makes shower time, or getting ready to leave the house, a frustrating experience.
Recently, we hit a record of six separate temper tantrums thrown in one day, all about different things. But today, something happened. During her shower time, Lexi made it a point to obey me.
Normally, when I turn off the shower, she turns the cold water back on and starts screaming. And when I ask her to come to me to get wrapped in her towel, she throws herself on the floor laughing because she thinks it’s funny to be difficult.
Today, she declared, “Mama, I obeyed! I didn’t turn the shower back on!”
“You’re right!” I replied to her as I dried her off. “You know what else you just did? You let me dry you off without running away.”
“I did!” she exclaimed with excitement.
I scooped her up and went to find my husband, with whom Lexi excitedly shared her tale of obedience with. We both expressed our pride that she had decided to listen to us.
Now, I’m sure there will be many more tantrums to come. But in that moment, I was just so happy with her. It was so rewarding to see the joy that she got from being obedient. I feel like I began to understand one of the more beautiful aspects of parenting.
As I dressed Lexi in her pajamas, I told her, “When you obey, you make Mommy and Daddy really happy. But do you know who else is happy when you obey? Jesus! He loves when you obey your parents.”
I added, “I love you even when you disobey, but it makes me really sad when you do that. When you obey, I am so happy.”
“Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in obedience to him.” – Psalm 128:1 NIV
It truly got me thinking about how God must feel toward us when we obey. His love is unconditional, but we need to learn to obey him.
When we are defiant or rebellious, it will weaken our relationship with him and make him sad. But when we obey – and delight in obeying – it brings healing to our relationship with him and brings him such joy.
What kind of child are you being toward God right now? Are you the rebel, turning up your nose at his commandments? Or are you the child that delights in obedience?
If you aren’t right with God right now, take a moment to fix that. He is longing to repair the relationship with you. Repent of your rebellion and ask him to help you become more obedient to his word. Nothing brings him more joy than seeing his children return to him!
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