Kicking and Screaming

I spent most of this morning wrangling a wriggling 3-year-old at school.  Well, "wriggling" would be an understatement.  Kicking, screaming, hitting, throwing, pinching, scratching, pushing...that sort of thing.  I tried to reason with him at various times in the way adults reason with extremely defiant 3-year-olds...

 "Do you know why we are sitting here?  You are not making good choices.  You are not listening to your teachers.  You are not following directions.  You are hurting yourself, your friends, your teachers, and the things around you.  Your teachers like you, and we want to do fun things at school, but we can't if you don't follow the rules.  We have rules for a reason.  We need to make good choices so we don't hurt ourselves or our friends.  Do you like to feel hurt?  Of course not.  No one likes to be hurt.  You don't like to be hurt, your friends don't like to be hurt, and your teachers don't like to be hurt.  Following directions makes everyone feel better....."   and so on.....

Not surprisingly, the reasoning was not especially effective.

Do you know why she is mad? "Whyyy??"  Because you hit her.  "Whyyy??" You can't hit people.  "Whyyy??"  It hurts them.  "Whyyy??"   

You get the idea.

Anyhow, as I thought back to his little teary eyes, his little kicking feet, and his BIG screaming voice, I couldn't help wonder if that is how God sees us sometimes, or, who am I kidding, oftentimes.  He leads us step by step; he breaks down his instructions into simple little pieces.  Yet, I still so often find myself not understanding, writhing around, and asking "Whyyy??"

I get it, kid.  I get it.

You do need to listen to your teacher, and I need to listen to mine too. :)