Lessons from a 4 year old: How the Cross Makes you Really Really Fast

Yesterday my dear four year old came to me as proud as ever with marker drawn on his arms telling me that he found a marker in the bathroom. You moms all know how this goes, they are proud, you are horrified at the mess or disaster created and they are pretty sure they are the next Picasso. Well, the next words out of his mouth did surprise me, but in a whole other way. He said "I drew the sign of the cross on my wrists so that I could run really, really, really, really, really, really (insert 10 more really's) really fast. As I looked closer on his wrist sure enough, they weren't random marks, they were crosses, one on each wrist.

It's a proud parent moment when you get to see that your four year old realizes that God can make us better. He loves to run and is always looking to be faster. He has certain shirts he calls his "fast" shirts, and often has to change into shorts because he can go faster in those too. But I just absolutely love that he decided above all of that that clearly the cross would make him fastest of all.

Hebrews 12:1-3 says

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us

and persevere in running the race that lies before us

while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.

For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross,

despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.

Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners,

in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart."

How absolutely right my son is, that not only does God - keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus - help us in our race, but truly focusing on the cross itself, not just as a sign for Jesus but as a motivational reminder, is key. When we look at the cross and consider what he endured as the third verse says, then we will not grow weary or lose heart with the obstacles we are facing because it's nothing compared to what He went through. 

The verse and the cross both call us to shed our sin. It's slowing us down! And if we think we can't, just look at the cross. We can, because of the cross, because He embraced that cross, we have the power to overcome the sins that cling to us, that slow us down, that hold us back from the life we were made to live, the race we were made to run.  

I'm called to consider, by a four year old who found a marker, a question: am I relying on the cross to help me finish this race, or am I looking to other things instead? I'll reflect on that as I'm scrubbing the marker off of the wall in the bathroom...consider how he endured such opposition...it's just a little ink. :)

 

Just Keep Trying

If any of you ever watch "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" with your kids you might be familiar with the catchy tune: Just keep trying...you'll get better. I love that show for the great lessons it teaches my 4 year old. Each show has a short jingle that they sing to reinforce the lesson of the day and honestly at first I thought they were really annoying but after a while I noticed that I could use them during the day when we encountered those types of situations and they really helped my son. I even started to notice him singing them to himself.
So recently, one of the episodes featured the "just keep trying" jingle and I feel like ever since it's been popping up in my life all over the place.
For example, one day last week I had a terrible day. You know those "I'm crabby, the kids are crabby, and everything that can go wrong does", kind of days. I felt horrible and texted a friend at the end of the night how I wish there was a re-do button for that day because of the terrible mom job I did that day. Of course she texted she was sorry but there is no re-do button, but there is always tomorrow. She was right, and as Daniel Tiger was singing "just keep trying, you'll get better" in my ear, I promised tomorrow I would try harder. And guess what? I did, and I was.
I think sometimes we do a disservice to each other by excusing the act of settling. You'll find a million blog posts about moms who refuse to try so hard and have succumbed to the fact that they will never be supermom. I'm not advocating that its necessary to be supermom, but instead that there's a healthy balance where we realize we aren't perfect, but we keep trying to be better moms, better wives, better Christians. In the strike against trying to pretend like we have it all together or always being the best, some have slumped to the extreme other end of not trying at all and excusing it as them not masquerading as super-mom. It can be easy for me to fall into this slump as we are so quickly to help each other excuse away our mom-flaws and bad habits. But I know at the end of the day when I lay in bed recounting the day, the guilt and remorse I am feeling over the day isn't stemming from comparing myself to any other moms, but from the knowledge deep inside me that I was made better than that. I was made to love greatly, to love better, to love even on my crabby days, even on the kid's crabby days, even when the washing machine leaks all over the floor and the toilet won't stop running. I'm not trying to be like other moms, I'm trying to be like Jesus. It's not an unhealthy thing to compare myself to Him. As our primary example, it's necessary.
So, friends, please don't excuse my bad behaviors. Yes, I'm sleep deprived, and my husband has been working long hours and I can argue with my son to get dressed in my sleep because we've done it every day for a month. But those excuses are so weak compared to the strength of the Holy Spirit that promises to give me what I need for this very important work. This theme flows from motherhood to work struggles, strained relationships, people I fail to love well, the list goes on and on. I know when I am feeling discouraged or beating myself up about a failure, it's not Daniel tiger's voice whispering in my ear "just keep trying", but a much more familiar one. My prayer is that I can always reply, "Ok, Father, thanks for the encouragement and thanks for believing in me, I'll keep trying."

Offering prayers for you in your "trying!"