A Pink Kitty-Cat

This morning as I was dropping the kids off at their preschool, Taylor tried to take her pink kitty-cat inside with her. There is a rule at her school that says you can not take personal toys inside and I am definitely a rule follower so I told Taylor we had to leave it in the car. Well, you would have thought that I was strangling my child! She started screaming that she needed her kitty, she was wailing, she was stomping and I was determined to not give in! So, with one child in my arms, a bag on my shoulder and holding on to Taylor by her wrist, I finally got inside the preschool. When I opened the door her cries and screams stunned the secretary. I politely said "Good morning" and kept walking by her praying she would understand the desperate look of a mother of an almost 3 year old and not ask me any questions. Thankfully, she just smiled and kept her mouth shut - even though I think I saw a hint of a grin on her face...

So, after I got Morgan settled in to his class I took Taylor aside to talk to her about her behavior. She was hysterical! I tried to explain the rule, the importance of being obedient and tell her that her pink kitty would be in the car waiting for her this afternoon. She didn't want anything to do with that talk and ran and hid under a table. So much for that approach. But, she went to her class with out her pink kitty-cat and I went to my car unhappy that she was acting like that and hoping she would quickly understand and have a good day.

Oh how much we are like Taylor! We have things that we desperately think we need to have with us and God says "Oh no you don't" There are rules that our Bible has clearly given us. "Thou shalt nots" are all over the place as well as the "Thou shalts". So, why do we pitch such fits over things that we want that God has revealed to us that we don't need? It's all about control! We have that desire in our lives to control anything and everything. We will even use the old passage of "I feel God calling me this direction" just to make ourselves feel better about doing something God hasn't called you to do.

Can you imagine what our temper tantrums look like from Heaven? All the angels are gathered around the edge of a cloud looking down, shaking their heads while God is calmly trying to explain why He's not letting us have something we want. We cry out, we stomp our feet, we yell and even run and hide. But ultimately God finishes His perfect will in our lives and lets us suffer for a season (not really suffer but we think being with held from something we want is suffering) and He steps back and waits for us to come to our senses, seek understanding and enjoy living under His protection and grace.

What is God asking you to leave behind, to give Him control over? Anybody can walk around with a stuffed pink kitty-cat under their arm but it takes a mature, Godly person to leave it at the alter and learn to live with out it.