Reasons.

This morning, Paxton screamed at me. A very shrill, clearly unhappy scream accompanied by real tears and little hands trying to swat me away. He didn't get to do what he wanted to do, so he reacted. It's not the first time, it certainly won't be the last. He recovered quickly and let me love on him, but I found myself (in a very therapist-y manner) saying something to him along the lines of, "Honey, I know it's frustrating when you can't do what you want to do, but mommy has reasons. You have to trust me."

Then I pictured God saying the same thing to us at times. "My child, I know it's frustrating when things don't go just how you want them, but I have good reasons. You have to trust me."

Paxton is just 17 months old. Even though I try to help him make the connection between his emotions and appropriate labels for them, he is developmentally not able to really verbalize how he's feeling and what he thinks. So, instead of telling me how he feels, he shows me.

 As a therapist, I'm always amazed at how often we, as communicating adults, don't communicate. We don't tell people what we feel, we show them.

This often also happens in our relationship with God. How tempting is it to poke out our bottom lips, furrow our brows, cross our arms over our chests, and turn away from our Heavenly Father when we don't get what we want when we want it?

Have you ever done that?

God is our loving Heavenly Father. Even when He doesn't allow us to have what we think we want when we want it, He has reasons. He knows exactly what we need. We have to trust Him.