God's Parenting

I wouldn't make a very good god.

Now that we're all agreed on that, let me share my latest reason: I have little patience with the process of things. I tend to be very results oriented in my thinking. The path is not nearly as important as the destination.

Sometimes, that's a good thing. When a project needs to be organized, a problem solved, or a task completed, it's a great trait. The rest of the time, though, it can get me into trouble.

While I prepared dinner the other day, for example, my daughter was climbing on top of the kitchen counter. Again. And I was telling her to get down. Again. I was no longer using my indoor voice. The words came out of my mouth before I even realized I'd thought them, "How many times do I have to tell you?"

It suddenly struck me, God has never once said that to me. Now, granted, He's tried over and over to teach me some lessons that I certainly didn't want to learn anymore, but He never ever expressed frustration that I hadn't yet learned them.

Sometimes I think we expect entirely more of ourselves, and each other, than God does. Or we go the other way and don't set our expectations high enough. If only I could figure out which is which.

In the meanwhile, my prayer is that God will help me to be more the sort of parent to my daughter that He is to me. Would you pray with me?