Free Sanctification

I’m trying to get dressed quickly before Ben has to leave for school when Jude climbs up on the bathroom vanity, “Deah uh ush eetch?” Jude points to help me understand him. He wants to brush his teeth.

Having a toddler is a lot like living with a foreign exchange student (interrupted for unintelligible statement and an attempt to snag my cell). They have different habits and you can’t understand what they are saying half the time (interruption to ask him to remove himself from behind the gas fireplace even though there are all kinds of interesting cords back there. don’t worry, it’s not on). They unintentionally make life harder for you and constantly demand your attention. It strikes me that toddlers are really just a built in opportunities to practice the fruits of the spirit. Patience especially (hitting sister intervention interruption). Of course we are responsible for training them, but in the process we choose whether or not to double purpose their training into training ourselves (interruption: “uh wanch da nee mount” translates into “I want something else” the waving of the sippy cups clues me in). Every day, every hour, every minute, sometimes every second, we make that decision whether we know it or not. We choose to interact with our children as an opportunity to cultivate kindness in ourselves or we see them as an inconvenience (interruption for a poking-your-sister-in-the-head-is-a-gateway-to-hitting-her service announcement). This can be incredibly overwhelming, but it helps to be intentional in our approach.

We have an opportunity to glorify God in each challenge and we will succeed or fail. When we fail, which we inevitably do from time to time, even our failure serves as an opportunity to humble ourselves and demonstrate how to seek forgiveness — to God be the glory (interruption to find his boots and coat so he can go outside to play). Sanctification is everywhere! There are so many opportunities, in fact, that we must be careful not to rely on our ourselves for energy, wisdom and joy. We have to couple our intentions to improve ourselves with drawing strength from the Source, otherwise we’ll just get run down and end up sinning up a storm and probably all before lunchtime.

I am a big advocate of open-ended prayers for stay at home moms, especially. We spend so much time with our children, that it is easy to feel lonely. Praying for strength and patience continually throughout the day helps me not only be supplied with those gifts, but also reminds me that I’m not alone (“uh oopoopies” interruption for diaper change). Sometimes I think some of us have intense, determined toddlers because we haven’t cultivated the fruits of the spirit enough in ourselves yet (interruption for reading Madeline and the Gypsies which is a favorite because it has horses *and* a lion). There’s always a chance that once I’ve made a habit of love, joy, peace, great-heartedness, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control in my own life that my toddler might cease to be so high maintenance (“uh whah unch” He’s ready for lunch, “uh uhce” and would like some juice). Maybe not. Even if that doesn’t happen, at least teaching him to cultivate those things won’t seem like so much work for me if I’ve already made a habit of them.