Skip to main content

socks and sandals

this morning when i put raiden's clothes out for school, i laid a pair of socks on top. i could only find one tennis shoe, though (a common problem around our house), so i grabbed her sandals. after she got dressed, she started to put her shoes on. i told here she didn't need the socks since she was going to wear sandals.

her reaction?

bottom lip sticks out. she starts and huffing and pouting, whining that she wants to wear socks.

okay--easy solution.
i grab a different pair of shoes, a pair she can wear with socks.
my easy solution, though, doesn't work for her.
she doesn't want those shoes. she wants the little white sandals.

looking back, this probably should have been one of those "pick your battles" moments. i probably should have just let her wear socks with the strappy white sandals. she is, after all, only in preschool. in the long run, it wouldn't have mattered.


but come on--socks with little white sandals?
really?
(just as an aside, apparently i know nothing about fashion. while searching for a "bad" picture of a girl wearing socks and sandals, i kept finding pictures of what is apparently a "good thing" in the fashion world. whod-a-thunk-it?)


she's pouting, sitting on the couch. we are running through the whole rigmarole (wow, i never knew that was a real, defined word...you learn something new everyday!)--
you have to make a choice, and you have to make it now.
it is time for us to go to school, and you are about to make us late.
either wear the sandals or put on the socks and change your shoes.


that doesn't end the pouting, and now i'm really getting agitated.
i run through her options one last time, and she's still pouting.


i may have then proceeded to take the sandals off her feet and put the socks and other shoes on her.
she may have then proceeded to remove said shoes and socks in the car on the way to school.
we may have had a few words, including but not limited to one of those parent exaggeration statements: "i better not hear about you doing one thing wrong at school today, because you have already pushed too far and you know what will happen..."
            (...for those of you who know our family stories, what comes to mind here is pop famously telling sarah, "i don't care if a meteorite falls on your big toe--i better not hear you whining!")


some days, raiden thinks she knows more than i do. she, for some reason, gets it in her head that her 5 years have taught her so much more than my almost 28 years have taught me.


isn't that annoying? you know what's best, but somebody still challenges it.


it makes me wonder how God puts up with me like He does.
some days, i think i know more than He does. i, for some reason, get it in my head that my almost 28 years have taught me so much more than God's eternity...

at those moments, my favorite passage to read is job 38-42:6
i'm not going to put 4 1/2 chapters on here, but that passage starts like this:

"who is this that darkens My counsel with words without knowledge? brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me." (niv)


i like how it is put in the message. i've taken the liberty to put my own name in place of job's--feel free to do the same.
"why do you confuse the issue? why do you talk without knowing what you're talking about? pull yourself together, mandy! up on your feet! stand tall! I have some questions for you, and I want some straight answers."

sometimes, i need to be reminded that i really don't know anything.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

a little bit of physics (don't be scared!)

"by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." hebrews 11:3 this is one of my favorite verses--i call it my physics verse because to me it is tying together my faith and subatomic particles. no, really--i mean it! when i first started working on a degree in physics and a minor in biology, somebody (i don't remember who anymore, but it seems like it was somebody on some kind of discussion board...) told me that i would forget about all that dumb "christianity" (<--spell checker doesn't like that. hmm...) stuff. once i had been educated, i would see that faith was superstition and a pointless waste of time, something for the ignorant, uneducated masses.  while i'm sure that is the conclusion some people come to, it sure wasn't for me.                          ...

one word for 2013

How many times growing up were you told to be a leader? Our society seems focused on being the leader, the one out in front all the time. We are taught to develop our leadership skills we pick team captains from childhood we strive for promotions we work hard to be at the front of the pack. I'm definitely no exception--I worked hard to become captain of my cheer squad from middle school on through my senior year, I studied to be at the head of my class and then get into the Honors Program at Tech when I started college (the first time around , anyways!), I developed the skills that would get me into grad school. I was taught to lead instead of just going along with the crowd. What if there's something else being asked of me, though? Hang with me here--if you're like me, this concept is a bit of a hard pill to swallow. What if, instead of being pushed to become a leader, I'm being asked to simply... Follow. That is my word for 2013. It found me unexpect...

God's blessing?

There's a verse in 1 Peter that I hadn't really noticed before. It's funny how that keeps happening to me...books and chapters I've read many times, on pages with underlining or notes, but all of a sudden I read a verse that I've somehow missed. This time it was while we were studying at church Sunday morning: "For the time for judgment has come, and it is beginning with the household of God. If it is starting with us, what will happen to those who have rejected Godā€™s good news?" (1 Peter 4:17) I've been listening to Pastor Allen Jackson a lot lately. I highly recommend that you do the same, but I'll warn you first--he's probably going to step on your toes. One thing he has been pointing out a lot lately? We as professed Christians can't blame the decay in our nation on "them". Our nation is in free-fall because we--those who claim to be followers of Jesus--have failed. We have let a nation founded on biblical truth and biblical...