A Day in the Life of…
The other night, I had an idea to do a few fall crafts with Mazy in the morning. I pinned the ideas on Pinterest and made sure I had the right items to make them. I couldn’t wait to show her when she woke up, what I had come up with. There was this beautiful picture of a tree made out of a handprint, with little fingerprints used as the leaves, made of all different colors. I was thinking she would gravitate towards that craft and sure enough, she did!
I got all of the items out and after tracing and gluing on the stencil of her sweet little hand, I told her she could now do the leaves. I tried to explain in detail, what it was supposed to look like, and showed her the example, so in my mind, that’s what I thought it would look like when it was done. This beautiful Pinterest masterpiece.
My parenting at that moment was selfish and perfectionist-oriented. I had an idea of what I wanted her masterpiece to look like, and it wasn’t turning out how I was thinking it should. So I told Mazy to do this, do that…and then she wanted to make a pile of leaves at the bottom. And at that moment I thought, c’mon Kristin! Let her make HER masterpiece and stop trying to make it look like the perfect Pinterest picture! Because let’s be honest, I’m going to doubt a child did that one because let me tell you, it was perfect. The fingerprints right in line of each other, perfectly spaced…seriously? It seemed like a cookie-cutter picture, instead of a unique masterpiece that represented who that child was.
And isn’t that a glimpse into how Christ wants us to view our children? Not as cookie-cutter kids who can make Pinterest-masterpieces, but as unique children who can make their own masterpieces, with the ideas, visions, and gifts God has given them?
I humbly accepted my mistake and realized wow, I’ve got to keep my parenting perspectives in check! And at that moment, I realized to Mazy, it was perfect. What more could I ask for? And now to me, it’s perfect too. It is even framed in our hallway because it truly is so beautiful, but it’s also a reminder to me, to not try and form a cookie-cutter kiddo, but to allow Mazy to be who she is, ideas and all. And that, is who God made her to be!
How easily do we do that in parenting though? Try to make our kids to be like someone else’s? Wishing they did this, or were good at that? Or made a picture like the one on Pinterest? It sure was a reality check for me…
And a story I have to share…
Yesterday morning Mazy and I were talking about Peter and Jesus, and how Peter walked on water. Mazy says “No fair…I want to walk on water! Why did Jesus give Peter powers to walk on water, and not me?”
I tried to explain the whole idea of faith to Mazy and believing in Jesus, but of course it was a concept I wasn’t doing a very good job at explaining because she was so stuck on the fact that Peter could walk on water. By the end though, I convinced her that we can believe in Jesus like Peter did. A deep, deep lesson for 8:30am! When you truly think about it though…Peter WALKED ON WATER because he was focused on Jesus. He kind of dared Jesus in a way – testing him – to see if he TRULY could testing his own faith. But the moment he took his eyes off of Him, he started to sink.
Just think about that for a moment! Can you imagine witnessing that? Try explaining that concept to a 4-year-old who only thinks about “super powers” that cartoon characters have or “talents” certain animals have from Wild Kratts – super powers as they sometimes call them! This whole scenario reminded me that God can choose to show His power in ways that are completely mind-boggling. And that’s what I pray for Mazy – that God would use her in extraordinary ways to make HIS name known and for HIS name to be glorified!
What a powerful story that really is! Just a day in the life of the Sterks…
And then an hour later, Mazy didn’t believe me that I could still do a cartwheel. She asked if I could do them when I was a little girl and I told her yes, but that I could actually still do them! She thought I was too old, not strong enough, and didn’t for one second believe that I could. Well, when we got homed, I was able to prove that I still had the touch, even after 3 open heart surgeries and an ICD in tact! Truth be told, I was a little nervous to do one, but we sure both got a chuckle out of it! Me laughing in nervousness, her probably laughing at how ridiculous I looked! Just a day in our life…
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