When Your Boundries Fall in Pleasant Places...

They say parents of strong willed children usually pray that those same children will grow up to have strong willed children of their own. A pay-back of sorts. A see-what-you-put-us-through opportunity. 

If this is true, God answered my parent's prayers abundantly when our sweet Ellie-girl was born.

I look at her and see the same blue-gray eyes that stare back at me in the mirror each morning; see the same dark brown hair that is forever mistaken as black; the same dramatic flare that I've always been accused of having; the klutzy, uncoordinated movements that I have never seemed to outgrow.



But what terrifies me, as a parent, is seeing the same stubborn, strong-willed attitude. That determination to push the boundaries. The I-can-do-it-myself look in the eye.

Because, Dear Girl, you can't. You simply cannot do it yourself. I have learned...am still learning that--daily.

Yes, I saw you peek back to see if I was watching you reach for the book after I've told you "no" for the thousandth time today. 

Yes, I know you want to grab the kitty's tail even though you have the scratch on your hand to remind you that it's not a good idea.

Yes, I hear you crying at the gate that blocks your entrance to the kitchen and all of its mysterious cupboards.

But I also know something, Little One, that your beautiful, nine-month-old imagination cannot understand yet. Something that life is teaching me.

Those tears that fall? Those cries that well up in your lungs, the uplifted arms to be held when your plan--that determined plan to do it on your own--fails? 

It won't be the last time. It will happen again... and again. 

And that stubborn streak--the one we share?-- will get you into trouble time after time. You will fall. And you will fail. And, oh how my mother's heart aches to think of it, but you will be bruised and it will hurt and you will cry countless tears.

Though it will happen over and over, it may take you awhile to learn. You will hear "no" more times than you can count. You will be scratched and bruised over and over. And if it is not this gate you cry at, it will be another one down the road. 

And then one day, you will realize that those boundary lines and gates aren't all that bad. That there was a reason they exist. And giving up your strong-will for obedience isn't as bad as you thought. 

And so, Child, I will continue to say "no", and put up gates, and set those boundaries, until we both learn that those boundaries fall in pleasant places for us. 

And we will be reminded that we serve a loving Father who hems us in behind and before. A Father who loves us enough to allow us to be bruised and disappointed in our own stubbornness, so that He can brush our tears from our cheeks, cradle us lovingly in His arms and show us the beautiful and perfect plan He has for us.