Lessons from motherhood: You cannot always have everything - 16 April 2024

We recently celebrated Easter. However, let me give a little bit of context before I continue with my story. Our little girl has had a very good appetite since she started eating solid food. We laugh about it, but we are of course very grateful for a child who (until now) eats well.

She is also quite adventurous and is willing to try anything. When her father takes something out of the fridge, she is next to him, and shouts loudly and urgently, “Bite! Bite! Bite!”

So, on Good Friday, we were in church. Holy Communion was served, and while the bread and wine or grape juice were handed out, I could already see how this child’s eyes first looked around curiously and then, longingly; a family member shared small sips of grape juice with her.

Needless to say, my husband and I both had to defend our glasses of wine with our lives afterwards. (Feel free to try reasoning with a toddler, especially in church. It tests you on levels you never knew were possible.)

The lesson I learnt right there in the pews? You cannot always get everything you want or think you want, right now. You just cannot and sometimes, it is better that way.

God knows what we need, he knows what is good for us and he knows what will not be good for us. He also understands why, just as I knew why I could not give my little girl my glass of communion wine.

The hardest part is trusting that God knows better and that he will also have the perfect timing in meeting your needs. It is sometimes hard not to insist, like an almost two-year-old, to get your way …

The thing is, we do not always know what is in that glass that we want so much – even if it looks promising and delicious. God is the only one who knows and we need to hold on to that.

Prayer: Lord, help me to remember that you, as my Father, know what I need. You know what is good for me. Help me to realise that I cannot always get my way and that there is a reason for it, even if I do not immediately understand it. Amen