I should have known better.
But I fell for it again.
I bullheadedly charged into teaching about “patience” without any back-up plan, prayer defense, or “abort mission” button.
It seemed so simple to say, “That’s right, Viv! Patience is waiting with a glad heart” as I drew a nice big fruit on our “Fruit of the Spirit” board.
Everything seemed to be going so well.
Then Lia pooped in the tub.
She was upset; I was grossed out.
(Opportunity: Patience.)
After everything was scoured clean, we tried to make a tornado in a jar (inspired by our current read-aloud The Wonderful Wizard of Oz). It worked okay, but the real tornado came when Viv got blue food coloring on her hands and LOST it. Really. Lost. It. (Opportunity: Patience.)
But then I lost it. Because, well, the frantic crying over a few blue blotches just got under my skin.
In the end, the experience provided an opportunity for us to have a heart-to-heart about how Viv’s friends will love her despite the color of her hands (she really was concerned about this), and about how some fears are plain-old debilitating and we must tell ourselves to cool it or we’ll miss out on all kids of opportunities. Once we both calmed down, we decided to address the problem diplomatically. We looked online for “how to remove food coloring from hands” and discovered that scrubbing some toothpaste on the hands for 2 – 3 minutes (more patience) will do the deed; and make you smell fresh, too!
While we were rinsing the blue blotches away, Viv noticed a slight tint remaining. She smiled and said, “You were totally right. It really isn’t a big deal to have blue ink on my hands.”
Comments
6 responses to “Opportunity: Patience”
Adorable, and so, so like Him to create the opportunities. Oooh, I’ve passed up a few lately. Which leaves me grateful for His patience with me…
L,
This made me laugh out loud! HA! BECAUSE–when Viv was at our house making cookies, she got some dye on her hands from the sugar crystals. She frantically made her way to our sink and begged for soap…and I held off a few minutes 😉 *mean Mrs. Jenny*
She will have to make her way out to our house for our annual digging for worms day as we plant our garden. Araelia for some reason likes to make one worm magically turn into 2! *gross* She has learned, however, that even worms are living things…that should not be cut in 2! This will give Viv a fun chance of getting really, really dirty 😉
I love the toothpaste idea–will have to tuck that one in my hat. AND…the pooping in the tub…what a chore. Each one of my kids either freaked out about their ‘floaties’ or ended up taking a quick bite before I noticed. Hate to admit that.
Oh, what stories we have to tell!
Love you!
oh, and yes…great lesson on Patience. Didn’t want to miss that point 🙂
So, before baths—we’ll both call our prayer partners to ask for prayer…that our kiddos don’t poop in the tub..and if they do–we can laugh, take a picture? or blog about it!
Got it!
Enjoy the “(Mom), you were totally right” comment, tuck that away. Those will be few and far between
This was such a good post!
God does this all the time in our mommying doesn’t he? Loved reading this!