Tomorrow my baby is turning 6 and is very much not a baby anymore. This little girl has challenged me in ways that none of my other children have. God has taught me so much in her 6 years of life. Below is one of those lessons about God from motherhood I learned when she was just 2.
My daughter is deep in the waters of the terribleness of the twos. Not that two makes it mandatory to have terribleness. It hasn’t been the case for all of my children, but this time it is so. Fits, screaming, the words “no” and “mine,” are all familiar these days. Even after the five previous children I am still figuring out the best ways to handle this.
One day, in the midst of a full on tantrum, I had an idea. I started whispering in my daughter’s ear sweet little nothings while she was still yelling and carrying on. After a few whispered words she completely stopped. You see, she wanted to hear what I was saying because I was whispering things that were only meant for her to hear and she couldn’t hear me if she kept up her tantrum. She got very still and kept listening to my whispering. Then she started whispering back.
God whispers too.
Sometimes I beat my fists against His chest and I throw my tantrums and complain…
…and then He starts to whisper.
I have a choice to stop and listen or go on with my complaining. His whispering intrigues me and I so want to hear all that He has to say.
Why does He whisper? Perhaps because He knows that all of the worries I am complaining about will all go away when I get still before Him. He knows that when I wait on Him I will gain renewed strength. How can I hear the whispers, the call to stillness, unless I stop and listen?
Through the parenting of a two-year old, He takes me deeper still into understanding why it is so important to be still and wait on Him.
Keep whispering Daddy.
