Door ~ Day 11 ~ 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes

This post is part of the October 2018 Edition of 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes. I hope you”ll join me in seeing where each prompt takes us.
P.S. Just so you know, I’m finding it difficult to stick to five minutes (**) and it may take me longer than the 31 days to finish all the prompts. Not easy for this rule follower!
You can read more 31 Days entries at http://www.fiveminutefriday.com

Kicking the Door

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21 / Pixabay

When my daughter was a toddler, she was “gifted” at making her needs, wants, and dislikes known! Needless to say, she often found herself being reminded of more acceptable behavior. It was in such a discussion that I had one of those eye-opening, a-ha parenting moments. As the potential punishment for her behavior was being described, she looked up at me with her big green eyes and with her hands on her hips and said, “Bring it on, mom!” It was then I realized the time for change had come.

Phase two of training a strong willed little girl began. Because she was a social butterfly, the new consequence to her misbehavior was to isolate her in her room away from all that was happening. Oh, how she hated it and didn’t hesitate to let me know! Once she was behind the closed door it began. Bam! Bam! Bam! Little feet sending a BIG message! Things hadn’t worked out as she’d planned and She. Was. Mad. For the duration of her time outs she kicked the door. I don’t know where in the world that trait came from but she didn’t get it from me!

Or did she?

As I look honestly at myself, there have been many times when my reaction to not getting my own way has been exactly the same as my daughter’s was. When in the midst of our excitement of planning** to move and the offer fell through, I kicked the door. When the job I was sure was mine was given to someone else? I kicked the door harder. Tight finances. A friend’s miscarriage. Unfair treatment at work. Bam! Bam! Bam! And when those I love have passed away too young well, I’m still kicking the door. With little understanding of why things happen as they do, I’m sending God a BIG message : “I don’t want to be behind this closed door!” Your reasons may be different from mine, but maybe you’ve sent that same message yourself.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

I’m still working on thinking this way. I wish I could tell you that now when a door I want to walk through is closing in front of me, I’m able to lean on this truth in Isaiah and know that God has a plan. I wish that the urge to kick out of anger and disappointment wasn’t my first reaction. What I do know however, is that it’s time for a change.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

“My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” Proverbs 3:5-6, 11-12 (NIV)

I don’t know about you but submit and rebuke are not easy to think about, however, just as I had to lovingly guide my daughter to see that her behavior wasn’t getting her where she wanted to go, God wants us to learn the same thing. The lesson for me today and anyone else struggling behind closed doors is this: less kicking and more trusting! That doesn’t mean we won’t come up against a slammed door or that our path will be an easy one; it does however, mean that we will be lovingly lead straight to God, where HIS door is always open. And to that I say, “Bring it on!”