Broken Plate

 "I wanted to love my kids as only God can love them. Either I was setting up rivals for God or I was trying to compete with God- both efforts are doomed to failure."

I heard the crash in my kitchen last night before I heard the child yell "MOM." The combination is never good, right?

I entered the kitchen and said child was already rambling "YOU left YOUR plate on the kitchen counter. If it had been in the sink, it wouldn't have broken when I dropped a cup."

Sometimes I have to take two steps back and a deep breath to address the nonsense that comes out of my children's mouths.

So - when YOU were unloading the dishwasher and YOU dropped a cup out of the cabinet and broke a plate, it was somehow MY fault? Because rather than being in the living room where everyone else's plate was, I had properly returned my plate to the kitchen. It was MY fault.

Um, no sweet child of mine. No.

Yes, it was an accident BUT your first response should have been "I'm sorry Mom I broke a plate when I dropped the cup."

Not some diatribe about how it could not possibly be YOUR fault that the plate was broken.

I left that plate on the counter in pieces as we were worked through the idea of accepting our role in brokenness.

I've been soaking that today. The idea that we have to take ownership of our part in our own brokenness.

"Every problem must find its owner before we can ever offer a solution."

I've been pondering - perhaps God is waiting for me to own my own responsibility for my brokenness before He is going to offer a solution?

Just like we had to reach an agreement that this child of mine was in part responsible for this broken plate, I have to reach an agreement with God that I am responsible for my continued brokenness.

I think we've become a society of problems without owners.

People are shouting and complaining about the lack of solution but no one has stepped up and taken ownership for the problems.

We are a society of broken people who can't admit we're broken. Or are just sure our brokenness is someone else's fault.

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:48

Mama Warriors, we've been given much. We've been entrusted with much. These little souls that we birthed, they are "much." We can't teach them to be the hands and feet of Jesus without showing them how to NEED Jesus. We can't be their constant refuge - we MUST show them that we are not their solution offerers. He is.

And for them to gain solutions, they must take ownership of their own problems. They must be able to say "I broke the plate."

Published October 2017