Stubbornness

Parenting can be tough. My youngest had just moved from her crib to the toddler bed. I'd tucked her into bed and headed to finish the laundry when a few seconds later a little form traveled down the hallway to where I was working. I told her, "No it's time for bed." Then I walked her back to her bed and tucked her in. A few seconds later she returned. For almost two hours I continued the process of taking her back to her bed over and over again. I proceeded determined she would listen. The first night was the most difficult but as the nights continued she learned that she had to stay in bed at night.

Today we had to repeat this process with my daughter's stubborn dog, Winston. When we rescued a kitten Winston has continued to harass it. He won't leave the poor kitten alone. Finally we had to teach Winston to listen. We have spent hours working with him repeating the same thing over and over again. The process is grueling and frustrating as he acts just like my daughter did so long ago but he is even more defiant and stubborn. Eventually he will learn but we must continue the slow, difficult process of teaching him to obey.

Sometimes I think my quiet time with God is just like the process of discipline. Over and over again I fight my way through the process of taking my mind and curbing the extraneous thoughts that continue to enter my mind or the distractions that wreak havoc in my time with God. It's just like walking my daughter down the hallway to her bed. I too have to make this trek to bring my mind back to what it needs to be attending to. Praying and time with God take discipline, daily discipline and God is willing to help me when I struggle. I am learning to cry out to him when I'm struggling and always He takes my hand and guides and helps me just when I need it most.

My prayer is that all of you will keep plodding along one day at a time knowing that when you fail God is more than willing to come alongside to help you. May we not lose heart. We must continue to be stubborn in our fight to pray and have a quiet time with God. When we do things in our life will fall into place and we will find a peace and calm inside of us to handle the daily challenges we face.