Lessons I'm Learning from my "do it myself" Toddler

I've had an interesting morning with Luke.  He's had a lot of "I do by myself" incidents today!  It started at breakfast when he was helping himself to cereal.  He was choosing the kind of cereal he wanted.  He grabbed the box and Jay and I heard a spilling sound and then Luke saying, "Uh Oh".  Jay went to investigate as Luke walked over to me holding an empty cereal bag.  Sure enough, 3/4 of  a box of cereal was all over the floor.  Jay salvaged enough for Luke's breakfast and swept up the rest.

Later on in the morning, Luke found a screwdriver and attempted to "fix" a window that wasn't broken but now has a chipped piece of wood.  Then he was attempting to "help" me make my bed and spilled water all over the end table, wall, and floor.

Thankfully, I have been able to keep calm despite Luke's antics.

These small situations did make me think about the times I've tried to do things "by myself" without bringing things to prayer first. (Or, even worse, the times I did bring things to prayer and, despite feeling I should do "X" , I chose to do "W" anyway.)  There have been lots of times when I have used a screwdriver(my words or actions) in a place that didn't need fixing and caused damage to myself or others.

I've made plenty of messes trying to make something better but managing to screw something else up.  Sometimes I get too focused on one thing and other things that are important are pushed to the side.

And sometimes, I've tried to get something myself that I wasn't ready to reach, or I shouldn't have had in the first place, and everything in life just spilled all over the floor and made a mess that was way too big for me to clean up on our own.  Thankfully, even in the worst moments, I have a loving Father who salvaged the good out of the these situations and swept up the rest of the mess.

God can use anything for a teachable moment!


Oops...there's my cue...water spilling from Luke's high chair!  The messes just never end...at least I'm behind in doing the laundry so there are dirty towels to clean it up with!  See, you can put a positive spin on anything!  It's all about how you look at it.......