I’m a scheduler. I’m a worrier, a planner- down to the minute. I’m a perfectionist.
Anyone that walks by my office can tell you there is rarely anything out of place. BUT…I have a two-year-old daughter. She is messy. Loud. And marches to the beat of her own drum.
Her vocabulary is incredible. And she challenges me each day.
Like I said, I’m a stickler for a schedule, especially at night. but this last weekend Jeff bought Cate a new tractor- 1949 John Deere Johnny Popper – and last night she wanted us to take her to go see it at his grandparent’s house. They rode on it for what seemed like 30 minutes. My eye kept drifting to my watch, “What time is it now? Okay, only seven more minutes then we need to be in the car on our way.”
At some point I decided I was going to, unsuccessfully I might add, coax her off the tractor with her daddy, and into the car, because it is 8:30 and now time for bed. Eventually, I get her off and we are slowly walking to the car when Cate stops dead in her tracks and notices a tiny patch of flowers. 8:42pm
I don’t think I even noticed they were there because I was so intent on watching my watch, but she told me she needed two (while holding up five fingers). I nodded in agreement and continued to practically beg her to get in the car. It is now 8:56 PM
Cate tells me, “Mommy I loosed my flowers, can you help me rescue more?” I told her yes, and we walked back to the flower patch, it was then that I stopped looking at my watch and really helped her find some flowers to pick. I noticed that she never went for the ideal flower, always the one missing a few petals or mostly broken flowers.
She told me they were so BEAUTIFUL! And they were, as was her joy in finding them. When I finally stopped staring at my watch and listened to my daughter’s question I saw things the way she did.
Jesus asked many questions throughout the Gospels, all with a purpose behind them, for us to stop and think, or to stir a response. If we take the time to stop each day to ponder his questions and their intent, what more could we see?
Mandi Moon – Director, St. Luke’s Children’s Center
