Those were just a FEW of the questions my children asked me on our 15-20 minute drive home from some friends' home last night. At one point, about five minutes from home, I looked at Bill with a smile and said, "Remember that sign we saw at the Children's Museum last week that said the average 4 year old asks 437 questions a day, well I'm pretty sure our kids have surpassed that amount in our drive home tonight!" I'll admit that for the first ten or so questions my response to "Momma?" was, "yes buddy," or "yes sweetheart." However, by the time we hit question 150 or so I was giving a somewhat snippy, "WHAT?"
After the kids were finally home and tucked into bed for the night and there were no more questions for me to answer, the wheels in my head started to turn. I began to think about all those questions and what I could learn from them, as a mother, and as a Christ follower. Of course I started with a question of my own. Why do people ask so many questions? Well, as far as my kids go, it's simply that they need information. This world is huge and still relatively new to them and how can they learn, if they don't ask? That made me think more about the questions they ask and even how they ask them. My not quite 3 year old asks the same questions over and over. Sometimes this can seem very irritating. I mean how many times do you need me to answer the question, "are we going home now?" It's like he just couldn't get it? Or wasn't really listening to my answer. Then there's my 5 and a half year old, whose questions seemed more thought out such as, "mom, why did they have kid's movies at that house, when they don't have any kids?" And after given an answer one time, she seemed satisfied and moved on to something else. So, where am I going with all this?
Well, as a mom, it just really hit me that I need to be patient and kind when I answer the questions my children ask. It won't always be easy and there will be lots of times when I'll be tempted to and sometimes give into responding with a frustrated, "WHAT?" But I hope I'll remember that it is a privilege to answer the questions of my children. Most of us can remember a time we asked a friend, teacher or maybe even a parent a question and received a snippy response. Well, I don't know about you, but when that happens to me, I usually tell myself, fine, see if I ever ask that person anything again. What a tragedy if that were the mindset of my children toward me. In addition, I'm learning that their questions are such great learning opportunities. Not only in the obvious way, by giving them the information they are seeking, but also the chance to help them to learn to think and reason for themselves. When my 2 year old asks me if he can have a snack for the 10th time in two minutes, I can gently respond with, "what did mommy tell you about that?" And when my very curious 5 year old asks me why someone is acting a certain way, I can say, "I'm not sure, what do you think they could be feeling right now?" None of this is rocket science or anything new that most moms don't already know, yet it's something that I find so easy to forget. Especially for those of us in the trenches of motherhood answering the questions day in and day out.
However, the more I thought on this topic, I realized that God is so often that loving parent answering the questions of his children over and over again. I wonder how many of us get stuck in spiritual toddlerhood. Asking God the same things over and over and he graciously keeps answering. I spent some time looking up the phrase "asked Jesus" in an online concordance. Between the Gospels and the book of Acts, I got 91 hits. These were verses that dealt both with people who "asked Jesus" something and times when Jesus was asking the questions. As I skimmed over the verses I was so intrigued. Many questions were asked in order for the disciples or someone else to gain knowledge from Jesus. Other times the pharisees or rulers of the day asked Jesus questions in order to try and trap him or get him into trouble. And over and over again, Jesus asked people questions in response in order to get people to think for themselves and to help them realize the answers were right there if only they would look. However, in none of the verses I read, did Jesus give an angry response. He may have responded with his own questions, but he was patient and kind and always took the time to engage whoever was speaking with him. And so he is with me. I am very humbled that the creator of the universe, would take the time to listen to my questions and help guide me into a deeper understanding of who he is. I am blessed that even when my questions are full of hurt and confusion and anger, he responds with loving kindness. I am grateful that even though I sometimes don't listen or just don't get it, he never gives up on me. And most of all I am thankful that even when I don't like it or don't understand it, there is always a response to my questions.
Megan, what a good reminder for me! I was just thinking yesterday how tired I get of Marie's daily 2.7 billion questions (especially when it's the same question over and over and over). This was such a good challenge for me to be more Christlike.
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