It seems that as parents (or, in my case, a godparent) of toddlers, we spend the majority of our time trying to teach them things.
Don’t put that in your mouth!
Hands are for loving, not hitting.
Sweetie, the cat doesn’t like it when you do that.
Teaching our toddlers the things they need to know is good and right. It’s important. It’s part of our job.
But I believe that God put toddlers in our lives not only to learn from us, but also to teach us.
Take, for example, an incident that happened with my godson the other day (he’s 17 months old) when I was babysitting him.
Marshall had climbed up onto the piano bench. He loves to bang on the piano keys and listen to all the different, cool noises they make. But, being a toddler, his attention span is only so long. After a few moments of playing, he attempted to get down from the bench.
The only problem was, his technique needed a little work. Marshall turned onto his stomach on the bench and tried to lower his legs down to the floor. This might actually have worked, except that the bench was pretty close to the piano. Marshall wound up halfway to the ground, wedged between the bench and the bottom of the keyboard, clinging to the bench with all his might. Naturally, he began to fuss, and he was working up to a good cry when I swooped in and grabbed him under the armpits.
You know what happened next. When Marshall felt my firm grip on him, he released his grip on the piano bench and allowed me to pull him upward to safety.
I think the lesson God wanted me (and you) to learn is this: Marshall did exactly the right thing when he found himself in a scary situation: he cried for help. But then, when help came, he utterly released his grip on the piano bench.
If Marshall hadn’t believed I could handle his problem, he would have kept clinging to the bench. But because he trusted me implicitly, he turned all handling of the situation over to me without hesitation. In other words, he acted upon his trust.
You and I are pretty good about calling for God when we’re in trouble. But when He shows up, we keep clinging to the bench because we’re afraid He won’t resolve our problem the way we want Him to.
I realize full well that God doesn’t always do what we want. But it all comes down to this: Do we, or do we not, believe that God’s handling of our problem will be right and good?
We may say with our minds that we believe it will. But our grip on the piano bench will show what we really believe. Will we keep clinging to the bench, as if our efforts to save ourselves could somehow be better than His?
Or will we cling to Him, believing that nothing we could do is better than what He is ready to do?
Psalm 34:4—I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. (KJV)