If there's one thing that is fascinating about having children, it's the blatant display of sin nature from birth. Many say that kids are innocent and such, and perhaps they are to a degree. But there is no doubt they are sinners waiting for their bodies/minds to catch up so they can follow their own desires. Has anyone ever had to teach their kids to lie, not share, boast in themselves, hit/bite out of anger, etc.? I think not. And if someone did teach their kids how to do things like that, there's a much bigger problem! :-P
It's always been a sad transition for me when my children have reached that age in toddlerhood where you start seeing WILLFUL disobedience -- as in, contemplation of disobedience, how to do it, how to get away with it, how to smooth things over in order to avoid discipline. Both my boys hit that phase. But now my little girl has hit that phase. And let me tell you...just as there have been many other gender differences in watching my kids grow up, this is another one!
Boys? They are just outright disobedient. There might be some mischief mixed in here and there, but neither of my sons has ever tried to schmooze their way out of anything. They either run away and hide, throw a fit of anger at being disciplined, or they man up and take it, knowing they did wrong. But my sweet, adorable girl? Nuh-uh. I've now seen that no one has to teach a female how to be, well, female. Let me give you an example.
One of our biggest issues with Snickers lately is that she is very skillful in taking off her pants and diaper, generally at the most inconvenient times like sleeping time or playtime when Mommy has to be doing other things. We know that she knows it's a no-no. She's reached a point where we have realized it has to become a discipline issue. Apparently, she's also reached the point where she knows what we'll do if we find her diaper-less. Yesterday, I went into her room at naptime after peeking in and seeing a (cute!) bare bottom. She stood up in her crib, all smiles with sparkly eyes and chatter-boxed away at me. I had "the talk" with her about her disobedience, and picked her up out of her crib. In that motion of lifting her out, she immediately gave me a huge smooch on the cheek followed by a heart-melting giggle. ARGH! Must fight the warm fuzzies so she'll see disobedience is serious!! Today? Yeah. Caught her naked again. So what does she do when I walk up to her crib to commence "the talk" again? She lays there and gives me a coy little wave of the hand with a Mona Lisa grin. ARGH! Stop that! "Did you disobey Mommy and take your diaper off?" No answer except another wave and a soft, cheerful "Hiii!" I did follow through with the talk, but boy is she good at trying to melt my heart into a puddle of gooey love! She's GOT to learn that Mommy has a Rock at the center of my melted heart...and I have to obey that Rock even if the talks aren't fun for either of us.
It's all been very eye opening to me and has made me ponder the wiles of women (a great example of this is in Proverbs 5). Even at almost 2 years old, my female child knows how to manipulate, look cute, schmooze, cry big tears, yell at you when she's not getting her way, and speak sweetly to distract you from the truth. Just this morning, she actually used her finger and voice in a tsk-tsk fashion at her brother for touching her stuffed kitty! Kinda scary. Especially knowing that sin unhindered exponentially grows each year it is allowed to keep root in the heart. Time to don the battle armor and fight for my baby girl, praying that she'll channel her femininity to honor Christ and become His warrior princess!
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