Call it in the air

Something very interesting happened to me today while leaving the house to go to work. I was rushing to get my two oldest children, my daughter 7-second grade and my son 6-kinder, into the car to take them to school. Now, the regular routine is that whoever sat in the back yesterday gets to sit in the front today. Well, after a discussion that took so long I felt I had to go shave again, all three of us could not remember who sat in the front the day before. (The kids excuse - they are 7 and 6. My excuse - another story) So, being the great diplomat that I am, or possibly just trying to rectify the situation a fast as possible, I came up with the idea to flip a penny to see who gets to sit in the front. Both children were excited because we were playing a game; I just wanted to move the process along a little faster. My daughter looks up at me with a smile on her face and says "tails",my son being the aggravating little brother looks at her and snaps back "I wanted tails". It is at this point in the story that I tell you that I have a lovely daughter that truly understood this morning that Daddy was in a hurry and with compassion in her big brown eyes looks at me and said with an ever so soft voice, "Daddy I'll take heads". With warmth in my heart I flip the coin (with just a tug of hope that my daughter wins for being so sweet to me, should I admit that as a dad) and it lands on heads. The announcement is made that my daughter will sit in the front and off we go. Dispute resolved, but the story is not over.

My son handled the news a lot better than he normally does. He picked up his backpack and out the door he went with a slight frown on his face. By the time we reach the car I saw that his head is still held low and tears are beginning to run down his face. Not wanting to get to upset with his behavior, I asked him if he was alright and reminded him that he had agreed to the terms of the coin toss. He looked at me with tears in eyes and frustration in his voice and said, "Yeah, but God made it be heads. Its His fault." After I took a step back, just in case lightning flashed before me, I began to see this as a teachable moment. I looked at my son and began to remind him that it was not God that made him lose, it was actually his own decision. I began to recount the events to him, "Remember that your sister originally picked tails? Remember that you pitched a fit over wanting tails? Remember that your sister lovingly allowed you to have tails? What if you would have just let your sister have tails, then you would have had heads right? So was it God that made the penny heads just to get back at you, or was it your choice to take tails and therefore lose the coin toss?" I never really received a verbal answer from him, but seeing him begin to wipe the tears away and allowing a small grin begin to blossom on his face later down the road showed me that he understood the meaning to the questions.

After I dropped the kids off and began my journey to work, I began to think about the situation a little more. I began to think about how my kids crying and whining really get under my skin sometimes. And then, as it has happend so many times before, a still small voice began to tug at my heart and understanding began to compassionately embrace my mind. How many times have I cried to God because the coin turned up on heads for me? How many times have I believed in my heart (real belief) that because a situation has not turned out the way "I" wanted it to turn out, that God had it out for me? How many times has He had to listen to my crying and whining about something that "I" wanted knowing the entire time that my desires were not what was best for me? How many times have "I" blamed God for my coin turning up on heads when it was really because of choices that "I" have made? Just something to think about.