PRIDE GOES BEFORE THE POOP

I try to be an active and engaging mom by asking my kids questions about their day. I have learned as they grow older they think of my engagement more as an interrogation. Young kids though really enjoy telling us what’s going on in their lives.

We walked in the door from church one Sunday and as I was getting lunch ready I asked my oldest about his Sunday School class. I just loved Miss Sandy and found her to be such an enthusiastic teacher. Nathan loved her too, which made it so much easier to get him out the door to church. He is one of those kids who takes in a situation, analyzes it, and reports immediately on the analysis. I was about to get a good dose of his analytical skills.

I began with easy questions such has How was Children’s Church? What kind of snack did you have? Who did you sit by? I then moved on to Sunday School-how was it? Did Miss Sandy teach? Which kids were there? My child dutifully answered my questions with excitement, thereby confirming what a great mom I am. I decided this was an opportune time to start asking more complex questions and even discuss Biblical truths. Heck, I might even be able to impart some of my vast Biblical knowledge and further educate my kid spiritually. As they say, pride goes before a fall.

I asked Nathan to tell me about Miss Sandy’s lesson, and he shared that it was Noah and the Ark. I thought to myself oh this will be great! We can talk about why God chose Noah, how Noah built the ark even though his friends criticized him and made fun of him. We can discuss God’s grace and His desire for a relationship with us. There are so many possibilities!

I asked my kid what kinds of supplies did he think Noah brought on the ark? Nathan thought very carefully-I could almost see the little wheels in his brain turning. He spoke clearly and precisely, “Well, I think that Noah would need a lot of vacuum cleaners on his ark.”

Hmmm……okay well that does make sense I reasoned. I decided though to ask him to expand his answer, since he is a most precise and to the point child. I thought it was a good opportunity to practice giving more information. “Why do you think Noah would need a lot of vacuum cleaners on his ark?” Nathan was ready with his answer-after all he had spent quite a bit of time on it.

“Well Mom, that’s because there would be so much poop on the ark. Noah would need a lot of vacuum cleaners to clean up all the poop!” That little guy was incredibly proud of his answer-after all, he had spent a lot of time on it. At this point I realized my child was not quite ready to discuss theology, or any other ‘ology’ for that matter. I also realized that it’s okay that he isn’t ready yet-he will get there and when he does I will still be here asking questions.

I find a lesson to be learned in all my past deeds. I quite often put the cart before the horse. Here I am over fifteen years later and I still do that. I’m not sure I’m ever going to change. I’m not sure I want to change because I enjoy expecting a lot out of life. I need to realize though that I should not be disappointed when I figure out I have a cart with no horse. My horse will be coming shortly.

Please comment and let me know if you enjoyed Noah and the Poop. Let me know if you have any Pride Goes Before the Fall stories too!