Lessons learned from a four-year-old’s tantrum
This morning one my favorite little four-year olds was laying on the couch making up a song about God. Some of the best lyrics being “God is the one we trust. I love Him! He loves my momma! God is in our hearts! He died for our sins and God made us and he made our friends” She literally sang for five or ten minutes and was just SO JOYFUL as she sang about God’s goodness!
Not twenty minutes and the iPad she wanted to use died. INSTANT tantrum. I’m talking 30 minutes of top of the lungs screaming and telling me that I needed to fix it RIGHT NOW. Poor girl knows by now that Alyssa doesn’t put up with whining. You whine – you don’t get what you want – PERIOD. (#preschoolteacherdoesnthavetimeforyourcrap)
My heart rate was rising and my anxiety climbed. I knew it would be way better for her to learn to calm down and learn to be patient, and to get some screen-free time. But man oh man did I want to give her that iPad. It felt SO ridiculous. I kept thinking “She was so full of joy just a few minutes ago, what happened? Why is she letting this ruin her whole day?”
And then it hit me
And then it hit me, how often do WE act like that? We diligently do our quiet time in the morning and meditate on God’s goodness in our lives. We feel full of His love and goodness.
Then we drive to work and traffic is terrible – GOD, fix it RIGHT NOW.
We get to work and the WiFi is down when there is a big presentation starting at 9 – GOD, fix it RIGHT NOW.
We forget our lunch at home and don’t have time to buy anything. GOD, fix it RIGHT NOW.
We grumble about the little inconveniences to our coworkers, then turn around and tell our spouse what a horrible day we had. We let the tiny little things of life dictate other moments in our day. Maybe we don’t let it ruin our WHOLE day, but we definitely don’t just let it go either!
It’s just a silly as a preschooler’s tantrum
God’s goodness and love are so much greater than the things we let ruin our day, even as adults. God’s always got our backs. Maybe traffic was bad because God knew you needed to grow your patience (in preparation for the giant tantrum awaiting you from a four-year old, for example . . . ). The WiFi being down would have been a great time for you to pray for the presentation, but you used it only to complain. You forgot your lunch, but God placed a coworker in your life who helped you out, and now a new friendship is forming! Or maybe none of that happened for a reason. Guess what? God is still good. (Read those four words again, and out loud). GOD. IS. STILL. GOOD.
So next time you feel a grown-up tantrum coming on, take a deep breath and remember that the God who made the universe holds you in the palm of his hand, and that is worth so much more than a tiny inconveniences.