But I Neeeeeeed It!

I heard someone say once that God creates all His own visuals to accompany the lessons He's teaching us.

Need a reminder of God's majesty and creativity? Check out the sunset.

Need to remember that God makes all things new? A little thing called Spring.

Need to understand God as our Father? Listen to a child.

My own daughter provides a plethora of illustrations in my daily life. Lately, one of her favorite phrases is, "I need it!" Well, actually it comes out something more like, "I neeeeeeeed it!!!"

No matter how often I explain that, no, she really does not neeeeeed to eat a cookie for breakfast it usually doesn't do any good. She becomes upset at the situation and also at ME for not giving her what she wants.

Is this what I sound like sometimes to my Lord? Does He get tired of hearing me say, in so many words, "I neeeeeed it!"? And then maybe He rolls His eyes when I become upset that the answer wasn't "Yes"? When, really, like my toddler I just don't understand the whole situation?

Eventually, we hope that our daughter will accept our "yes" and "no" without argument based on our character - that our decisions are always for her eventual benefit. However, it's so hard for ME to accept those same answers from my Heavenly Father at times. Even though I know His character (faithful, loving, unfailing) when I get a "no" from Him I still tend to whine, "But I neeeeed it!!!" and throw a good ol' spiritual fit.

When our daughter throws a fit we know just to stay close by and it will pass. Then she'll be ready for a snuggle and to move on to the next thing. I'm so glad our Heavenly Father is the author of that strategy - He's had much practice waiting out my own tantrums and is always waiting with open arms when I'm ready to go sneaking back into His lap.

Thank you Father for your "visuals"! Give me eyes to see and ears to hear . . .