Whoever invented Polly Pockets was not the mother who would be changing the clothes of these minuscule nuisances. My three-year-old comes to me multiple times a day to get a little rubber skirt pulled off and another one put on. It takes me forever to manipulate those stupid little things. And the shirts are worse! Who can get those toothpick-size arms into a rubber shirt?
Yesterday I decided I was done. It is time for Keila to put Polly Pocket’s clothes on all by herself. She wasn’t thrilled with this development. In fact, she dropped her head and screamed, “I CAAAAAN’T DO IT!”
You know, I think I’m like Keila more than I would like to admit. I come to God multiple times a day to fix things that He thinks I am ready to deal with. “God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation” (James 1: 12). Yet I keep coming to my Father asking Him to fix it.
My daily requests:
- I can’t do it by myself
- Make it go away
- I am too tired
- I am too weak
- I can’t, I can’t, I can’t
The visual I have now is that to my Father I am a crying three-year-old who just doesn’t want to try. It is so much easier to have your mom or dad dress your Polly Pockets. And it is so much easier for me when God just removes my obstacles. Yet, I don’t look any more like Him at the end of the day.
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. Romans 5:3-4
