From five to seven pm in our house pretty much anything goes. I am normally trying to soothe one child while convincing the other one that her dinner doesn’t have poison in it. I can only assume she thinks I poison her food because she looks at all of it like it might kill her. If it’s not made in a factory she’s not interested. The littlest Baldwin is indefinitely teething and cries pretty much from 3pm to 7pm. Hes over tired, over hungry, and there just aren’t enough hands. I know that nobody with small kids can relate(wink wink).
Anyway just setting the scene for what took place at approximately 6:02. Ben was trying to soothe Briggs, I was trying to keep the dog from eating the poison meatloaf (its not really poisoned please don’t call your local defax.. unless they will send help from 5pm-7pm and in that case go right ahead) when I realized Claire was missing and quiet. When a two year old is quiet and unseen you should expect something to be broken or explode. So I walked upstairs to find her in the kids bathroom sucking the remaining Tylenol out of one of those syringes like a real addict. She looked straight up at me, syringe in hand, red liquid dripping from her mouth and says.
“I’m not drinking the medicine, I’m not”
To hold back both tears and laughter I sent her to her room where I promise one parent will come talk to her when one parent has enough patience and dignity to do so (I didn’t say all that but you can convey a lot with your eyes).
She walked off crying mostly because she had been caught but she also is one of those weird kids who really wants us to be happy with her (my husband’s genetics at play here). I wish I could tell you we had this great talk about lying and she repented and an angel flew into her bedroom and congratulated us on the stellar job we were doing as parents. But as I said it was between the hours of 5-7pm so we mumbled something about how the Baldwin’s never lie (which is a lie) and made her apologize.
As I was going to bed and thinking about her guilty little face I realized at just a little over two she already needs Jesus. I have heard a lot of people say that they believe people are overall good but make poor choices. I really could believe that until I started raising a two year old who only relies on human nature. Let me tell you about the beauty of human nature when its stripped down to its purest form.
We want what we want when we want it. We HATE to share. We lie instead of tell the truth when we think consequences are on the line. We want to be first and we want all the attention. That is human nature at its finest. I know because I live with this pint sized human who has no filter and doesn’t know what is and isn’t socially acceptable. That’s my job. I have to teach her that kicking her brother in the head isn’t a great way to release frustration. I have to show her that you have to let other people go before you, that loving others means sharing, and our current favorite that you cannot in fact poop in your pants your whole life. Luckily I have my expensive out of state college education to rely on for such lessons (sorry dad).
For some reason being caught in the act of disobedience and seeing her respond with a bold lie made me so thankful for what Easter truly means. It makes me thankful that I have Jesus to point her to and a cross that bears the weight of even her tiny lies. It gives me great joy that we are not hopeless and lost in our sin. Because I know she won’t outgrow her humanity but she can grow into God’s grace. I have really been struggling with how to share God with her, she’s starting to really see the world around her and ask questions and everything I say sounds too churchy or not real enough. I have said over and over that because of my past my goal is to make God real to her not just an answer she gives as to why the grass is green and sky is blue. However in the stage of life I am in it’s hard for me to see God as the personal God I know he is. So I just started telling her God loves her no matter what she does, just like mommy, and a few days ago she asked me..
“Mommy loves Claire no matter what?” and I said “yes baby no matter what.” And then she asked , “God loves claire?” and with tears in my eyes I answered, “Yes baby no matter what.” Because I don’t know all the answers but I know that’s true.
