I Do It Me-self

No! Me!

Me do it!

No do myself!

No! I do it!

We hear these phrases around our house all. the. time.

While we are glad to have Samantha growing and developing and learning, constantly hearing these phrases can get quite tiring. Our baby girl is most definitely asserting her independence. And that sometimes gets very frustrating. Like the other day when she wanted to put a bow in her hair.

She would not let me touch the bow at all to show her how it works. So I got a different bow to show her how to squeeze the clip part to open it. I told her that I would not touch her hair or the other bow, she just needed to watch to see how to do it. First she wouldn't look at me. The she threw her bow to the other side of the room rather than take a chance on me touching it.

Finally, after tears became involved because she couldn't get the bow in her hair, she watched me show her how to squeeze the clip so that she could put it in her hair. Then she worked on squeezing it open herself. She did get it in. It was barely hanging on to a couple strands of hair and it was very askew, but it was in her hair and she was so proud of herself.

Listening to her say "Me do it!" can be very frustrating for me. I want to help her. I want her to ask for help. I want to show her the way to get it done and then let her do it after she sees. But she just wants to do it herself without any guidance from me. And I just shake my head and let her do it. Sometimes I am exasperated. Sometimes I am amused. And I sit there and think "If you would just pay attention. If you would just let me show you. It would be so much easier for you." But she doesn't realize that and she struggles on.

I wonder if God feels the same way about all of us. If he shakes His head at our independence and stand alone attitude. If he gets exasperated when we try to do things our own way for the ten thousandth time. When we don't understand that if we would do things His way, we would have a much easier time. We would get things done faster. We would get it done right. But He never forces us. But I still wonder if He just shakes his head at us. At least I know He loves us anyway. And for that, I am truly thankful.