If you have kids, you understand what I mean when I say the word meltdown. The uncontrollable crying, whining, kicking and screaming. And the more you try to talk and reason as a parent, the worse it seems to get. This past week Eli has been dealing with allergies and Silas has been battling a cold. Both we have found are triggers for meltdowns. Whether it is due to lack of sleep, just not feeling good, or for Silas just not understanding why he keeps hacking it has led to a complete personality change for our kids a d a bunch of whining.
The littlest things will now set them off. Being out of chocolate milk, asking them to take one more bite of food or it being cut the wrong way for their liking, and who knows what else. This morning it was Eli’s hoodie being dirty and in the wash from him playing in the mud yesterday. Honestly the shirt straight up smelled. It had to be washed. You would have thought the world was ending. He no longer wanted to go to school, instead he kept hiding under the stroller screaming and crying over the situation.
As a parent I have to keep reminding myself he doesn’t feel good, and doesn’t necessarily understand all that is going on. That it is only for a few days, that his energy will return, and life will get back to normal. Silas just keeps saying, “daddy, I don’t want to cough anymore. I know buddy, and it will get better. I promise.
This week has me thinking a lot about our meltdowns with God. When we can’t understand the whole situation. When things don’t go quite the way we think they should. We look at our kids throwing a tantrum or having a meltdown (as we want to pull our hair out) but figuratively we do the same thing. Yelling, screaming, hiding, not wanting to talk to God in those moments.
I can only imagine Him reminding himself that we are just human and not seeing the whole picture. What sets us off as humans, we get totally overwhelmed with. God is saying I got it here in the palm of my hand. It’s okay. Trust me. But we only see the moment, the thing that set us off. The “sweatshirt” not being washed that we have turned into a mountain thinking it’s the end of the world.
How hard is it for us to remember these words from Paul when we are going through our “crisis?”
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Is there something in your life right now that has become your trigger for a meltdown? In those moments, do you hear God’s voice trying to calm you and reason with you, or are you only seeing your logic in that moment?
