The biggest area in my life where I find myself constantly keeping myself in check is with the realization that children who live in a home will constitute for a large amount of mess. When in fact, the blessing was right there in front of us the whole time! And in the end, we squandered it. I’m sure it’s safe to say that we’ve all pitched a few fits because something didn’t end up looking like the way we wanted it to. How many times have we sat and whined saying, “I just want to cry!” because we couldn’t get over the fact that things looked different than what we had expected or anticipated? Instead, he opted to sit and cry - refusing to take a single bite - and his cereal ended up going into the trash.Īs I drove to church that morning, I had to wonder how many times the good, good Father had given me something for my enjoyment - even a special treat like Froot Loops - and my own sin nature that likes to debut in selfishness and entitlement had forfeited the opportunity of the blessing. If Titus could have only gotten over the fact that his Froot Loops were in a different colored bowl than what he wanted, he could have enjoyed all 12g of their sugary goodness! Yes, all of us (at some point in our lives) have sat and cried - refusing the blessing that was right in front of us because we failed to recognize it. Now, you may laugh at this story, but truth be told, there is a little three-year-old in all of us. Just in a sad awareness of the lesson the Lord had just taught me… We finished the scramble of getting everyone’s shoes on, grabbing coats, and loading and strapping everyone into the van.Īnd in my final sweep of Did I forget anything?, I grabbed the bowl of cereal that had by then turned into colorful mush, and threw its contents into the garbage. I let him know that I wasn’t going to give him the blue bowl, and that if he didn’t stop crying and eat his cereal, he was going to run out of time to eat it.
He refused. In fact, he cried even harder - and with more determination.Īt this point, we were flirting with an even deeper issue. He had yet to take a bite, so I thought I’d help him… “Here you go, Titus, take a bite!” Titus continued to cry and so I urged him, “Titus, your cereal is yummy! You need to stop crying, and eat your cereal so we can go!” “Titus, it’s ok…go ahead and eat your cereal,” I said. Now Josiah had already started eating his cereal, and on the principle of “We get what we get and we don’t throw a fit.” I decided that Titus' bowl would just have to suffice. In fact, he wanted to trade bowls with his brother. I returned to the kitchen to discover that he wasn’t hurt and nothing had spilled - he just didn’t want the bowl I had given him. It was from my bathroom where I realized that Titus wasn’t sounding very happy.
I then ran from one end of the house to the other to finish getting ready. I poured the cereal and milk, slid both boys their bowls, and encouraged them to eat quickly so we could go. My reasoning was that Elsa and Anna had a much sturdier base - making the potentially-spilled cereal mess far less likely. Now, in our rush to get out the door on time, I gave Titus the Frozen bowl and his older brother the blue bowl. Going over to the kid drawer, I quickly pulled out the first two bowls I could find - one blue and the other Disney’s Frozen (complete with pink glitter and a picture of Elsa and Anna on the bottom). However, when he asked me again, and this time with even more intentionality and sweetness…I caved. I knew that saying ‘yes’ was the easiest route - but not necessarily the wisest. I knew exactly what the rest of the morning would look like by starting the day with 12g of sugar in a cereal bowl. If I don’t, he will be grumpy now and happy later. Now in those 15-seconds my reasoning said If I give him a bowl, he will be happy now and grumpy later. It was the kind of smile that makes you realize that they know that they own you. He sat there on top of my kitchen counter - with his sleepy face and disheveled hair (that I had yet to brush) - and looked up at me with his big, brown eyes, and smiled.
#Froot loops t shirt full
And when Titus asked for his “Froot Roops” so sweetly, I stopped for a full 15-seconds to take him in. We like to reserve those super-sugary cereals as treats for when we are staying in hotels or at Grandma’s house.īut for whatever reason, there was a box in the house that morning. Now, we don’t typically have Froot Loops found among our other cereal boxes.
It was in between pulling his shirt over his head and hearing the microwave chime - notifying me that his chocolate milk was warmed and ready - when Titus asked me for some cereal. My alarm had woken me up three hours before, and I was in the process of making chocolate milks for the road, brushing the tangles out of my daughter’s golden-brown hair, and dressing my three-year-old, Titus, in an outfit that could weather his storm. It was a Sunday morning and I needed to be at the church by 8:15 a.m.
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