Vacuuming

I have discovered that my son loves the vacuum cleaner. How that happened, I don't know, but he does love it! Not only that, but every time he hears the vacuum cleaners, he comes running up to me yelling, "I help you, Mommy!" He wants his hands on it, moving back and forth with me while I vacuum.

Now, to be honest, I'd really prefer to get floor cleaning over and done with quickly. It's not that I dislike cleaning floors, but I don't necessarily like it either. When Steven is "helping," though, it takes three times as long to run the vacuum cleaner across the floor because I have to go at the speed of a short little two-year-old.

As he helped me vacuum my bedroom this morning, I was struck once again by the realization that God is my Father and that so much of what I experience as a parent is a reflection of His relationship with me - imperfect though my parenting may be. God is the One who created the entire universe through His spoken word. He spoke its vastness into being in six days. Do I think it really had to take that long? Not really. I think He could have spoken it all into existence in an instant if He had so chosen. I think He took six days for the same reason He took the seventh day to "rest." He did is as an example for us. He was teaching us, just like He teaches us in so many other ways.

The difference here is that I sometimes wish I could just vacuum the floor without Steven's help. The fact that I have never told him no when he's asked to help is not any reason to pat myself on the back - I have just been convicted each time that I really need to let him help. That's my job as his mother. But, I haven't liked it. Even this morning I was wanting to get done so I could get on to my next task - and then get in here to work in a little blogging, work on calendars, and sewing before lunch and school. But, my job isn't really to blog or make Christmas presents - it's not even to clean house, to be honest! My job is to be a good steward of what God has placed before me and to teach my children to do the same. That's why I let Steven help me vacuum. That's why I will let Steven help me until he's big enough to do it himself. And my prayer is that he will learn through this experience that it's not even really about the vacuuming, but about learning that God Himself, the Almighty Creator of the universe, will help him patiently through any task he is called to do, just like Mommy helps him hang on to that vacuum cleaner!