Last weekend, my almost 5-yr-old son James broke his leg. We were at a family party and his teen siblings and cousins were playing a game of tackle football in the front yard while the parents were enjoying the barbecue in the back yard. James was watching the game from the sidelines and decided it would be fun to run through the game as it was being played. He ended up running right through a tackle and got caught at the bottom. One of the kids ran back to get me and said that he was really hurt. As a parent, that could mean anything from being really hurt to “he just wants some attention.” However, I knew when I got to him that it was serious when he was screaming, “I broke my leg! I broke my leg!” On the way home from the hospital I asked him how he knew that he broke his leg. He said, “I felt it crack.” OUCH!
The past couple of years have been really nice being that all of the kids are pretty much self sufficient. If they can’t do something then one of their older siblings is usually there to help. I even have my oldest, Nicole, who will be 18 next month, helping with some of the driving. That’s the beauty of being single and raising a large family. I don’t have to do it all. But this past week has been very challenging for me. After 9 kids and 17 years of diapers, I thought I was done with waiting on children constantly. But King James (as I have affectionately renamed him) sees it from another perspective.
He loves to be waited on. We bring him his meals while he watches his favorite TV programs; He watches Happy Feet until he falls asleep in bed (and no one in my house has a TV in their room except him now); we change his clothes; we carry him to the toilet; we use the stroller to take him out to the pool so he can watch the other kids swim. One of the kids even found a little bell yesterday that they were going to give him to ring when he needed something but I put the kibosh on that! He also cries and whine’s a lot when I try to break any of these new habits. Like when I told him I’m taking him to the kitchen to eat with the family. Or when I told him he had to sleep in his own bed (he slept with me the first few nights). He also cries when I lift him up but anyone else can lift him and he doesn’t cry.
With the frustration there’s also been a lesson in all of this for me. When I look at James’ relationship with me versus my relationship with God as my Father, I see many similarities. There have been many times where I’ve expected to be waited on by God in the form of my prayer requests. And if I don’t get what I want, I cry, whine and moan. Like James, when he cries, I almost refuse to help him because he’s not thankful for all I’m doing. But when he says, “Thank you daddy,” I want to wait on him hand and foot. Could the same be true for me and my relationship with God? I bet that’s why I’ve been so frustrated with God lately. It’s not His fault. It’s my attitude.
“I’m sorry God for whining and I wanted to say thank you for all you’ve given me. Here I am.”
Rich Vosler is a Certified Professional Life Coach, speaker and author. Rich can be reached at 609-367-4799 or by email at rvosler@verizon.net. His website, www.RichVosler.com is full of life and success tips as well as his brand new blog. Call or email today for more info and to schedule a free initial session.