Milk and cookies

I've been reading a book called Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas.

He tells a story about a young father who had a routine of making himself milk and cookies each evening. One night, he observed as his three year old son headed to the kitchen to clumsily climb counters, knock over glasses, spill milk, dump cookies, and clean up the mess with his t-shirt. I'm sure you know how the story ends. In true "chicken soup for the soul" fashion, the milk and cookies were for the father. But this isn't why I'm blogging about it.

"In this story, I want you to place yourself in the son's position, not the dad's. We're the little child, trying to serve our heavenly Father and yet making a lot of messes in the process. We can't reach as high as we'd like, so we make do with makeshift steps to reach the counter. We knock over a few glasses, and we spill the milk while we're trying to prepare a drink. Lacking all wisdom, we come up with the great idea of cleaning up the mess with our shirt instead of with a washcloth. But what dad wouldn't feel touched by such a display of service, however messy it might be?

We're not the best parents, not by far. We don't have all the wisdom we'd like. We don't understand how everything fits together. We make mistakes, we make messes, we can do everything wrong -- but God looks at us with a Father's delighted eyes. Where we see weakness, God sees humility. Where we see messes, God sees intent. Where we see failings, God sees motives."

It was so good to read these words yesterday because as I've been working through a few parenting books, they have totally brought me to my knees. I so want to raise Caroline in a way that will please God and impact His kingdom, but I fear that I am far too flawed to keep a perfect focus all the time. I'll have times when I want Caroline to be "good" from purely selfish reasons, rather than reasons that focus on forming Christ-like character. I'll have times when I choose happiness over her holiness. But God can overlook the milk that I'm spilling all over the place as I work to fill up her little soul.