I'm No Different than My 11 Year Old

This comment had me howling last night.

11 year old:  Mom, can I get an ipod shuffle?  (he went on to describe a new device out there I don't                         even know about.

Me:  Uh, no.

11 year old:  What?!  We NEVER get anything new.....except toothbrushes!!!

I laughed and laughed.  I felt like a perfectly successful parent.  When I told my other older kids what he had said, they laughed, too, and one of them added, "We don't even get new toothbrushes!  We just boil them when they get too old!"  True enough!  My poor deprived kids...I actually really liked that comment.  If they only get new toothbrushes, and maybe even then just once in awhile, then I think we've worked out the sense of entitlement.  And, by the way, he's totally lying....they get new stuff all the time....they just have a very short memory.

It's a great tie-in to the verse we studied in church a couple of weeks ago, Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?"  God will give us ALL things.  The pastor went on to describe all things does not mean all that we want, but all that we need.  He challenged us to look at all the things we THINK we need and then see if we have them.  If we don't have them that God does not think that we need them.  So, for my poor son...he thinks that he needs the newest device and went on and on about the nice parents that give them to their kids.  We said no.  So I told him, he doesn't need it.  He can want it, but I know he doesn't need it.  Just like our good Father keeps things from me, I keep things from my son, at least in this case, for now.  Maybe when he's older or maybe when he can buy it himself, but not now.

In my own situation here at home, I joke with people that I just found out that I have a large family.  When they were all younger we pretty much did all the same things together, had the same taste in music, movies, food, activities. We went everywhere together and almost had all the same struggles. Now, my life has changed so much in the last year, I hardly know how to handle it!  The older four are living almost entirely different lives than the younger 4.  They have their own interests, their own struggles, their own everything.  I need a separate mom to take care of them.  And, I wonder if it is because of this, where half my mind is on them all the time, that I'm finding it a challenge to accomplish all that I want to with the younger 4!  I need a separate teacher to teach them!  The only thing that is getting me through this is that verse.  ...will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"  Well, I think I need a cleaning lady, another teacher, a guidance counsellor, a lawyer, a judge (to deal with all the conflict with the tots), a live-in dentist (do you know how many trips I have to make to the dentist?!), a live-in doctor....oh, and I'm a vet part-time now, too.  I sometimes just sit in my house and wonder where the nearest spa is!  For all of us!  Just to get some tranquillity!!! There is so much activity, so much noise, so much going on, half the time there are anywhere from 5-10 animals in the room, chasing themselves around....it would make anyone's head spin just to sit in on it for an hour.....YET....All those things that I think I need, I don't.  Because God gives us what we need, not what we want!  Therefore, He's telling me, I can do it somehow, I can make it somehow.  It's forcing me to be on my knees in a constant state of prayer, unceasing prayer, all day, because that's what God knows I need.  He's using my situation, which may feel like it is permanent, but I know it isn't, to teach me all the character traits He thinks I need....again, not what I want, but He knows what I need way better than I do. 

Am I any different than my 11 year old son?  Nope.  I want an ipod shuffle, just in mommy form, but God is saying no.  He wants me to be ok without all the things I want.  The verse has shown me that is ok and is actually a good thing because He is my heavenly Father and He is parenting me better than I could ever parent myself.