So, I have a two year old.
Need I say more?
Let's just say that in the past few weeks Owen has felt the overwhelming urge to make, define, push, draw and fight about boundaries. Our biggest challenge if sleeping. While I know many other moms who have MUCH bigger problems in this area- it is our own challenge right now. The plain truth is this: to the mind of a busy 2 year old boy- sleep is for the weak! So last week after a rousing 20 minutes of he gets of a bed, I swat his bum and put him back in ...repeat and repeat and repeat... I stood outside his room with the door slighly ajar and watched him. The little stinker would crawl to the verrrry edge of his bed, lower his feet until they alllllmost touched the floor, then pull them up and try it again. He wasn't "out of bed" right?! I stood outside his room for another 30 minutes and watched this with as much amusment as exasperation- until he finally fell asleep like this:
As I watched him finally give up and close his eyes it occurred to me- aren't we the same way with God?
I tell Owen: "Stay in bed or be spanked." Seems like "well, duh" choice doesn't it?
What is God tell me?
"Don't gossip."
"Oh- that wasn't gossip, God! It was sharing a concern."
"Don't judge others"
"I'm not judging! I'm simply saying that they need to be doing this..." (because oh don't I know their needs better than God???)
"Love your Neighbors"
"Sure- as long as they don't interrupt my life or make me uncomfortable. Oh, and who exactly would YOU say my neighbors are anyway? I mean...just to be specific."
"Forgive."
"Ok. I'll forgive. As soon as they ask me to."
"Don't lie."
"I'm not lying- I'm just exaggerating a bit."
"Spend time with me."
"What? I pray at meals and tell my kids to pray. Isn't that enough?"
And on and on. It seems God give us (ME) commands and I want to push them to the verrrry edge of all reason. Meanwhile our Parent is standing outside our life shaking his head (I wonder if he's amused and exasperated too?) thinking, "Child! Just obey and all will be well!"
I think of that nice, big, cozy bed that Owen COULD choose to climb into and blankets he COULD snuggle under for warmth and comfort- but he instead wants to sit and sleep on the very edge.
And you know what- he fell.
Jaedon went to wake him up from a nap last week and Owen had fallen off of the bed.
And we do too.
I was also reminded last week as we talked in our Young Marrieds class about how some of these above issues (and so many more) become the foothold Satan can use to begin to tear us down. It is a slow fade- to quote a popular song.
We don't turn into judgemental people overnight- it a process of making one judgement after another.
Affairs typically don't happen in a day- it begins with an understanding conversation and an unguarded heart.
Distance in my walk with the Lord doesn't happen in a day- it happens one "busy" day after another until it's been a month since I've been in the Word. Our falling off of the edge happens because we continue to slide our feet off the edge of the bed to see just how close we can get.
If I continue to not engage God in my heart and only engage him in my actions- I will always be pushing and fighting his boundaries... much like my 2 year old.
This was my kitchen floor when I woke up on Saturday morning
This was a tired husband after 5 hours of work...
And this was our kitchen on Sunday morning:
Hard-working little elves at our place this weekend ;-)
I was so impressed with the missionary family we met in Zambia for- well, alot of reasons. One that has stood out to me though was how well they spoke to one another. It seems like a little thing but after we got home and reintegrated into our reality I realized how a "little thing" like being polite, courteous and respectful to each other- specificially in our own home- is not such a little thing at all! In fact, after some disheartening observations of our speech we felt like this was a huge problem that we needed to address. We thus began a "sweet speech" jar. Anytime we caught one another being encouraging, using manners, saying "ok" instead of arguing etc... they could put in one coin into our jar. The goal was to fill to the line and then have a Sundae Supper- I mean, what's sweeter than ice cream for DINNER??!! =) 
We had a delightful morning of tree-trimming, train-wrecking fun-
Yesterday was one of my favorite birthday-days that I can remember having in a while. It was a nice blend of normalcy and spoiledness. =) My man takes good care of me.