Testing the Limits

I am almost two years into this parenting and the daily adventures never stop. If you are a parent than you know that watching children grow and learn new things is an amazing process. Peyton (my son) never ceases to amaze me with his development. At not even two his knowledge of what to do and what not to do, by far is amazing. I often think, “Was I this smart when I was that young.” Most of my friends would say that I am not that smart now much less then.

One truth that I have learned by seeing him grow and pick up new things, are children like to test the limits, and man do they ever. For instance there is one thing that Chanelle (my wife) and I think that he just shouldn’t do, that is take food and drink in the bathroom. In the afternoon I am here with Peyton after work for close to two hours before Chanelle gets home. That leaves the challenge of do I close the door and wander what he will get into or leave the door open, and to be honest I would much rather be able to keep an eye on him. Pretty much all the time he has his juice cup or a small snack of some sort in his hands. One thing that I have tried to teach is that he is to stay at the door and not to bring what he is eating into the bathroom. He started off staying in the hallway but each day he has stepped closer and closer to the entrance of the door way.

Today was no different however he would inch first his toes over the threshold then inch and inch until both of his feet were standing in the bathroom, you guessed it holding his snack in his hands and looking up at me with that little know it all stare as if he was saying, “I knew I would make it in one day no matter what.” He was testing the limits, however just as he got the two feet in then stared up at me he quickly turned and walked out. But his face was priceless. It was as if he was saying in some sort of childish silence, “you said I couldn’t but I knew I could.”

You see I still believe he is too small to comprehend the reasons why we don’t want him in the bathroom with food and drink, all he knows is he is being told that he can’t go in there. It seems like kids have this way about them that if you say they can’t, then they try. Some call it rebellion, others say they don’t listen like they used to but I put a different perspective on it. I think they just feel the urge that for some reason they are being held down and they have to prove that they can. We still won’t allow him to be in there, and as he grows he will be taught the reasons why and then he will understand why he stands in the hall. However; I am left with this lesson from today’s parenting adventure.

God knows whats best for us but we still try and test the limits. He gave us his word to teach us and to guide us through life but we still want to prove that we can do it some other way. When it comes down to it we have the will not syndrome. I call the WILL NOT syndrome this. No one, not even God is going to hold us back without understanding the reasons why the boundaries are in place. Then we go, cross over the threshold and realize that our way really isn’t the best way to do it and we are left with yet another undesirable lesson of not listening to the ultimate guiding voice of truth.

I believe that there are times that he calls us to test the limits but never when it is a threshold that he has asked us to stay behind. You see if God has asked us to stand behind, it is for a reason. A reason that we may not fully understand.

Point being, know what the limits are and what they are in place for. Never test them to try and prove a point, or just because you wanted to prove you could. Know what you are doing and why you are doing it, know when to stay behind the threshold.

Thanks for Reading – gt

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The Chase

Wow, Peyton is growing by leaps and bounds. Every day is something new. There is a game like thing we play and have played for sometime now. I don’t know how we developed this but it has been pretty much since he has been walking. This game is played every time we are getting ready to give him a bath or change his diaper, or getting him dressed.

If we are getting ready to give him a bath he will stand at the bathroom door while we run his water with this kind’a come and get me grin. After running the water we will turn and as we do he will take off, Run down the hall (hold on he is wanting some more brownies) round the corner to the kitchen and run right to where the cabinets meet, turn with hands lifted for us to hold him with this burst of laughter and almost like surrender attitude. Then we will go through the process of getting him undressed and putting him in the tub. This same process goes for when we go to change his diaper or lay his clothes out to get dressed. The only thing I can think of is he likes the thrill of the chase.

For some reason it is almost like he knows he is going to get caught but he loves being pursued. It brings him some sort of joy. I call it the Chase. Kids are like that though, they do some weird things that as a parent makes me sit back and think why not take off to the left around the table so he can’t get caught. But for some reason the chase has to always end with him giving up…awesome times as a parent.

Reminds me of God, I think he likes THE CHASE. You see he will let us TAKE OFF from time to time knowing that the path that we always choose leads us to a dead end, where two cabinets meet. It is there at that point that the only thing left to do is to turn, reach out our hands, and guess what this is the kicker…He is right there waiting to pick us back up. And it is always the same run for us. We never choose the other way out or the other path, somehow our path is always the one where we ultimately have to give up.

Where is your CHASE leading you, are you at the place where two cabinets meet. You can’t go any further so stop trying. Just turn around, God is there.

Uncomfortable Silence

I never really noticed how quiet life around the house was before kids until this afternoon. Chanelle and I sent Peyton to the zoo with Mimi and Pop Pop this morning. It is almost 6pm and they are still up in Columbia having fun.

All afternoon I have been here by myself until Chanelle got home from work and it was just uncomfortable. I am use to hearing the patter of quick little feet up and down the hall and screams for juice and cookies. Now the only sound I hear is…nothing. Even with Chanelle being home it is still just quiet. AAHHH there that breaks the silence for a moment only to go back to, you guessed it silence.

Don’t get me wrong, it was quite relaxing and it is nice to have some us time for once in almost two years but it is still uncomfortable. Hard to believe that this is the first time he has been so far away for a whole day. It’s only two hours away but still the anxiety of not having him here is uncomfortable.

I guess you could say that we have controlled chaos around our house. It can seem like it is out of control but the chaos is anything but that. Silence is good, it allows you to reflect, to renew, and remember.

After having a child I have come to the conclusion that I love noise, or do I love silence. I can’t remember. Once again in a couple of hours Peyton will be hear breaking in on what is uncomfortable to get our routine back to ordinary…gt