Lego City

Last night I was playing Legos with my son. We have a set that has instructions on how to build the creation on the front of the box. Lately he's just been doing everything on his own and letting his imagination dictate what the final result is. While sitting there playing with him a thousand thoughts were running through my mind based on our interaction. I was thinking about how much having a child changed my relationships with various people. It changed my relationship with my husband. It's hard to explain but having a man be the father of your child and also be a phenomenal Dad just takes love to a whole new level. I was thinking about how my relationship with my parents changed. I understand them on a whole new level now. I understand things they used to do and say when I was a child that then I thought was just insane. I also thought about how my relationship with God changed.

Most of my life God was just God...this being in the sky that was sort of untouchable. I know I've written before along these lines but I'll just briefly describe sort of what I'm talking about. Growing up I was told God was my heavenly Father and that nothing but the best was wanted for my life. While I didn't always see that now I kind of do. It's a stretch but I liken my relationship with my kids now to how God must feel about me. I would die for those kids. I would do anything within my power to make them happy. I also want to teach them life lessons (yeah those sometimes hurt when it's me having to learn a lesson). I just want to be a good parent. I want to love them and have them love me. Well back to the Lego City.

So my little boy is sitting there trying his hardest to fit two pieces together that just weren't meant to mesh. He struggled for a minute or two. I offered to help. He declined my help. He struggled a little bit more. I offered more help. Still hell bent and determined to do it his way I decided to leave him alone. He continued for a few minutes until he was SO FRUSTRATED that he threw them down and said he was done playing (there's like six different kinds of lessons that could be learned here but I'll leave that for another post). I said to him "Son I offered to help you". His response is what got me thinking. He said "Mom I didn't want your help. I just wanted to do it my way for once".

Wow. How many times has that been my attitude? Hey God (or my parents, or my boss, or a teacher, etc) I just want to do this MY WAY. I don't WANT your help. In the end what usually wound up happening was me getting frustrated with life. I "threw" a situation away so to speak and then pouted about why it didn't turn out right when all along I had people offering to help me build my Lego City.

I guess it's in our nature as humans to want to try new things and test our own strengths and weaknesses. There comes a time though when a piece just won't fit no matter how hard we try. Maybe we're trying to fix that broken relationship for the umpteenth time and it's still not going together. Or maybe we are trying to piece together a job that just can't be put together. Whatever the case is sometimes we just need to stop and follow the instructions. There are people all around you today willing to help you in whatever situation you may have. Now I'm not saying just run out there all willy nilly taking any old Joe's advice on crucial things. But really stop and seek out "the right way" for a situation in your life. If it's that broken relationship maybe counseling is the answer. I don't know your situation today or what you might need but my challenge is simple. Take a look at the Lego City of your life and see are you just trying to shove pieces together that won't go?

We can always learn something new from every day and we can always grow. In the end maybe something just needs to be turned around or flipped over for it to work. Until next time...be blessesd!