This is the face of a child who has just made her own breakfast for the first time.
In her constant two year old quest to "do it myself", she selected her own cereal and brought it from the cabinet to the table. She put the cereal and raisins into her bowl. And fortunately, with very little milk left in the carton, she was able to pour it in the bowl without any unwanted assistance.
Two of my jobs often seem to conflict. I am to teach my child to respect other people and their things, as well as to not waste things. However, I am also tasked with fostering this little one's independence, to encourage her confidence and to allow her to learn how to do things on her own.
I desire more "breakfast made all by myself" looks of delight from my child, and less of my own furrowed brow as we use up yet another roll of paper towels. I want her to know that paper towels come from a combination of trees being harvested, people working to create them and our bank account paying for them, but I don't want these realities to keep me from meeting that exuberant smile with one of my own.
I am a combination of someone who loves structure, routine, order and neatness as well as babies. I love orderliness so much that I resist the urge to complete her puzzles for her in order to clean them up and to make sure the book titles that she can't yet read aren't upside down on the shelf. Recently after she pulled out about 8 feet of dental floss, I continued to rip off small pieces of the unruly mess instead of just tearing off the whole eight feet and considering it lost. Clearly, I don't always have the right response to these things.
Yet there are, and there will continue to be times when my "half-way big" girl (as she calls herself) will require the judgment of others to navigate her very big world. I am grateful I am not the only person in her life that she can turn to for this. And as all of us know, the mistakes won't always be as easily fixed as picking raisins up off the floor.
As her Mama, I will kneel down next to her to pick up whatever can be salvaged and talk about next time. We will talk about how she hurt someone else, or how she may have been disappointed, or when things just seem unfair. I will pray with her and for her as she learns from failure and as each experience refines her further to the person God created her to be. And I will cheer, for the rest of my days on this earth, I will cheer, and do my very best to match the exuberance of her two year old celebrations.
