Eating My Slice of Humble Pie

It was a day that I had to eat my own words. And let’s be honest, it happens. A LOT. Parenting sure has a way of doing that to ya, doesn’t it? I am often wrong and Mazy often proves that. I am often teaching myself the very lessons I am trying to teach her. And on this day, it was no different.

Our neighbors (THE most AMAZING neighbors) were having a large, and I mean LARGE tree taken down. A crane was needed to cut it down, and as the logs swung from the rope that was attached to the crane, I couldn’t help but vividly imagining one of those logs nailing one of our houses. It was rather impressive. Even Mazy was seeing what was happening and kept asking, “What if one of those logs hits the house?” She was concerned one was going to put a hole in our house. I thought, you know what? Teachable moment!

I explained to Mazy that our house, is just a material thing. It is replaceable, and we can’t take it to heaven. It is just a thing, and there are more important things. If a hole was put in our house, we would just fix it. She seemed to have understood because I can’t remember her worrying about it after that.

And then I ate my slice of humble pie and preached this very lesson to myself.

Mazy wanted to paint, which she does almost on the daily, so I got out all of her paint jars. She always puts a brush in ever little jar, so that she can mix and use every color. Well, I believe her sleeve got caught on one of the brushes and knocked the entire little jar of “washable” blue paint, brush included, on the floor.

And this is what it looked like after I wiped up the initial globs:

I’d love to say that I got it out, but let me tell you, it definitely looks like we spilled a jar of paint on our rug! Mazy told me right away and just kept saying, “Mommy, I’m so sorry, Mommy! I’m so sorry!” How could I be mad? If I’m honest, my heart started to beat faster because where do you even start in cleaning it up? But immediately I thought of what happened earlier in the day.

The chair? I got it for free from Wayfair. The rug? Came with the house and has other stains. But, have you ever tried to get globs of paint out of a padded fabric chair and a rug? Wowzas. But. They are just material things. They can be replaced (though we won’t). And we can’t take them to heaven.

So what does it really matter?

After scrubbing and scrubbing for 20 minutes, with sweat dripping off my face, I decided enough is enough. And I swallowed my own words. I was humbled. And God knew that moment would happen, to see if I would apply the very lesson I was teaching my daughter, to my own life.

No need to raise my voice at her because I too, learned a lesson.

How often do you find yourself in a similar situation? Encouraging or giving advice to someone, and then find yourself getting tested with the exact same thing? Humble pie, folks…

So while I was rubbing and scrubbing, trying to get this paint out, Mazy started making this masterpiece. At the end, she mixed every color of paint we had, painted both sides of her hands, and started making this.

How could I be mad? As she was stamping her hands, she asked me, “Mom, are you mad at me? Is daddy going to be mad at me?” No sweetie, I told her, I’m not mad. And daddy won’t be either. It’s just hard to get paint out. But it is also just things; that we can’t take to heaven.