“MOM (or DAD)!! Can you help me with this?”
I’m sure this is a question that’s repeated all day throughout the world. The languages might change, but it’s the same message. This little sentence really means, “I don’t get it. I know I should by now, but I don’t. HELP!”
Think about all the tasks you have taught your children, or the skills your parents taught you. Eating, dressing, arts and crafts, water safety; I could never list them all. Each accomplishment comes with lots of practice, lots of patience, and maybe a little exasperation. Parents need to acquire new heights of patience and it’s not easy. Sometimes I wonder why the earth doesn’t tilt off its axis from all the eye-rolling that precedes helping junior glue those popsicle sticks together. Again. Even though Dad just explained how to do it.
I remember getting my first Easy Bake Oven. What an ingenious invention.
A plastic case (it sure didn’t look like any oven I’d ever seen) surrounding a 100 watt bulb that cooked a 3 1/2 ” cake. Add a little frosting, and voila! Dessert for eight. Don’t ask me how anyone kept a straight face as I served cake slices the size of matchsticks.
But to get to the final product, I had to decipher the cake directions. It sounded easy. “Just add water and bake.” But to me, the instructions before me ranked right up there with nuclear fission. “Add what to what? How much?” The oven was getting awfully hot. How do I avoid burning myself?
“MOM!! Can you help me with this?”
I’m sure there was an eye-roll or two, but God bless her, my Mom hung in there with me so I could produce a slightly charred, hockey-puck of a cake. Yum! She was the soul of patience, reminding me of someone else who was consistently patient with constant questions.
Jesus tried to make his message simple. But in spite of all his explanations, parables and teachings, he heard a lot of “Can you help me with this?” Think about the Lord’s secret pupil, Nicodemus.
The message and language Jesus used was often confusing to him. Jesus said he would have to be “born anew”. Wow. “How can man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus replied.
I’m sure there were a few giggles around the room at Nicodemus’ expense. Jesus was a little surprised by his question, but wasn’t condescending or dismissive. In his infinite patience, he tried to explain it another way. I’m sure he’d keep doing that until his student understood.
I’m so glad I have such wonderful models of patience in my Mom, and especially in my brother, Jesus.
We all need help sometimes, and rely on others to hang in there until we ‘get it’. May God grace me with the virtue of patience, so I can have the joy of reflecting his Kingdom. And the quiet strength to explain how to glue popsicle sticks. Again.
I wonder if my granddaughter would like an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas?
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This is appropriate as I just reflected on my mom and dads 78 anniversary if they were hear today but they gave us 53yrs may they rest in peace. They gave our home life such love joy and peace with our catholic faith at it’s center. Always had patience for our thousands of questions we had as a kid. Let us stumble and fall only to say come on you can do it again just try. And sure enough we would get. If we couldn’t then that was O.K. we at least tried. How we learned faith. Seeing we were at mass confession praying daily dad would kneel by their bed before getting into to it. Mom sat in rocker after breakfast with her beads and no would talk to her unless it was urgent. This was rosary time with God. And she prayed for each one of us six brother and sister. And her rosary was the reason for my returning to the church after many years absent. God bless them for giving their all to make our lives better by their example.
Hi Kathy! It sure sounds like you had wonderful parents, what a blessing. So encouraging! And real examples of prayer too. The gift of patience is a real witness to others isn’t it? I need to pray for more of it these days.
Thank you for your visit today! I hope you will have a peaceful Labor Day holiday.
Blessings,
Ceil
I’m not always the picture of patience. Glad that God has much more of it, than I do!
Hi Mari! Oh, neither am I, believe me. I do my share of eye-rolling. It’s then that I realize that, like you did, God is patience. He doesn’t need that grace, he just IS. May he grace me to be as he is…
I hope you don’t have to work today? Have a happy Labor Day!
Ceil
The sentence I hear every day over and again is: Help, can you teach me how to tie my shoe laces, again!
Thankfully, my family is very patient and they teach me every morning.
This is a wonderful post, Ceil, reminding us that after all these years we still have not learnt Christ’s message: To love one another.
God bless you and yours.
Hi Victor! You do have a patient family! You should see me with computer and TV stuff…not pretty. Thank goodness my children have patience with their tech-challenged parents!
Yes, it does all come down to love. If my mom didn’t love me, I’m sure she’d take that Easy Bake Oven right out of the house. I’m glad she didn’t, I loved that thing 🙂
God bless you too my friend,
Ceil
Ooooh, yes those role models in patience are so important. Oh all the fruits of the spirit, I am waiting on patience to ripen. It takes much concerted effort for me to be patient… it does not come naturally. While I may look patient on the outside, I am frequently screaming on the inside. This is one area I need more prayer in.
Jesus is a wonderful example of a role model for patience. I get exasperated just reading about the people he had to deal with but he painted so many different pictures and scenarios so that people could understand.
Thanks for sharing Ceil and to answer your question… yes, you should get your granddaughter an easy bake oven for Christmas. Every child should have one at some point in their lives *wink*.
Wishing you a lovely day.
xoxo
Hi Jennifer! You and me both my friend. I think parenting is a huge challenge to that fruit. I really meant it when I said that being a Mom or a Dad requires new heights of patience. It demands that we come out of ourselves…not easy.
I agree that Jesus really wanted all of us to understand his message. Always restating, simplifying, telling stories. That is a huge witness to me.
Did you have one of those Easy Bake’s? I loved mine. I think my little girls will get one at some point. Looking forward to those teeny cakes!
Always great to see you here 🙂
Ceil
I loved my Easy Bake oven.
My mom too had much patience with me using it … my cakes did not turn out so well … LOL
Wonderful and inspiring piece … I loved it .
And I am giving thanks this morning for the wonderful role model I had in my mom ..she had the patience of a saint ..
Thanks Ceill
Hi Margie! They were the BEST weren’t they?
I’ll join you in thanks for our mothers. My mom died in 2010, but I will always appreciate her desire to not go crazy dealing with eight single-minded children. She had to have patience! And what a great support to let me provide dessert to the family with one of those teeny cakes… So much fun 🙂
Blessings,
Ceil
Ah! But when they’re adults at 26 and 24 you wonder “Now? I thought you got this?” But “Mom! You know what to do! Help.” Guess they never NOT need us.
Hi Chris! Good point! I love it when the kids call for recipe instructions (they mostly call my husband about that!). My children are about two years apart too. Plenty of action when they were little 🙂
I guess they will never stop being our kids, and we’ll never stop being their mom. It’s a lot easier to be patient now though, wouldn’t you say?
Happy Labor Day!
Ceil
Hi Ceil ~ I love this post. Patience is something that, with God’s help, I am working on. As parents, we need to role model patience for our children ~ something I don’t always do well at. If we want our children to be calm and patient, we must be calm and patient too! I am trying new strategies though, like stepping back and letting my husband deal with a situation when my patience fails me. I am also trying to step back and let God deal with situations and find that works even better. By the way, I had an Easy-bake oven too! Thanks for your thoughts and have a great week.
Hi Deb! I like your idea of ‘stepping back.’ I am terrible at that. I just jump right in with six feet, and that’s the worst thing to do. I always hear ‘count to 10.’ What you are doing is just like that. You are so right, we have to model the behavior we want to see in our kids.
Weren’t Easy Bake’s fun? I loved mine. I’m not sure the cake was all that good, but it sure was fun.
Thank you for your kind comments. Blessings on your school work 🙂
Ceil
One of my favorite pictures is of my sister and I working together to bake something using that oven. It definitely helped kids learn. Do they still make those?
Hi Stephanie! Oh yes, they still make them, but they’re all different now. Because incandescent bulbs are being phased out, they have their own power source. And they look like microwave ovens! Bogus!
What great memories you have! And it did help me to fall in love with baking, and work with fractions too I’m sure 🙂
Thank you for your visit!
Ceil
What a great post!!! I pray that my son will always need us..some way/ some how. (wink)—by the way, I would love a Easy Bake Oven, I never had one..the neighbor girl had one. Blessings
Hi Linda! Thank you for your kind words! I think your son will always find a way to reach out. I think the older they get, the smarter we look!
OOOhhh, I’d be so over at the neighbor house baking up a cake! They really are fun. If you have a granddaughter, run right out and get one 🙂
Blessings on this Labor Day,
Ceil
Nice post, Ceil! Without Christian parents, I don’t know where I would be today. God is certainly the One who has been patient with me as I “get it”! 😉
Hi Lynn! No kidding. God is patience, and he needs it with me!
How beautiful that your parents passed their faith on, what a gift. And one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience, so I’m sure they passed that on to you too.
May God continue in his infinite love to keep explaining his plans to us..as long as it takes for us to ‘get it’!
Blessings,
Ceil
Ceil:
I love this. I still have times when I have to ask Hubby for some help. And the reverse is true. When our son was getting ready to move, I knew he’d need some help getting things he would need to set up an apartment. He knew we couldn’t physically help him-like we did when he moved across the state a few years earlier.
I even have times when I have to ask God for his help. Right now, it is an almost daily request.
Hi Cecelia! Thank you for your kind words. We do have to help a lot from each other, don’t we? I think the Lord shows his love through the people who reach out, or respond to our pleas.
My son asked us to help him move out of his city apartment. Oh my gosh, that was CRAZY! I told my husband that this was our last moving gig. Our boy was on the third floor of a walk-up. We were patient and got the job done (Including throwing his couch down the fire escape!), but mercifully we haven’t had to do it anymore.
I ask God for help all the time. He is the best Father, and loves to hear his childrens needs. I don’t think he minds at all.
Happy Labor Day!
Ceil
mmm good Christmas Idea!! This does remind me what we must sound like to God. That makes me smile. Also reminds me of the book: Help, Thanks, wow.
interesting three prayers.
Have a great week, Ceil!
Hi Jean! I LOVE that book. Anne Lamott, right? I really like the way she writes, so I’m taking this as a huge compliment 🙂
They are interesting prayers. Worth meditating on for sure.
“the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.” Sing it Anne!!
Hugs,
Ceil
I love that you had the parents doing the eye-rolling. So often we think of it as a kid characteristic. Maybe it’s for more patience that we most cry out to Jesus saying, “I need help with this.” I also love the way you pointed out that Jesus was neither condescending nor dismissive. I recently read an article that suggested we give up all sarcasm. Another great way we could model our brother, Jesus.
Hi Deb! I think I could have medaled at the Eye Rolling Olympics. I come from a long line of them! I have also read about banning sarcasm. It doesn’t translate well to print, I can vouch for that.
The bible does say ‘let your yes be yes, and your no be no.’ I think that does banish sarcasm. (In it’s defense, I will say I have some very funny siblings who really know how to use it to crack me up. Never bashing, just really funny!) You are right. I can’t see Jesus doing it either.
Happy Labor Day!
Ceil
So thankful for God’s patience with me. Sometimes I can make the simplest things seem complicated. I find that I tend to do that with things I don’t really want to do in the first place.
Hi Pam! I know what you mean. Maybe I think God is calling me to do something for him, but it doesn’t sound convenient. I’ve been there before. How he keeps his patience with me sometimes, I don’t know.
Hope you had a good holiday! Thank you for visiting 🙂
Ceil
My mom would not buy me an “Easy Bake Oven”—thanks for the reminder–I have added it to my list of grievances. Perhaps because patience was not her strong suit! My life lesson to pass along—the more your practice patience—the longer it grows. Perhaps the reason God is so Patient!
Bless you, Ceil!
Hi Lulu! I am sorry about the Easy Bake Oven, that stinks. It did take a lot of patience from my mom before I could use it on my own. I’m not a quick study sometimes, that’s for sure.
I really appreciate the way you explained how patience grows. Practice, practice, practice. And that reminds me that we are all works in progress, never perfect, won’t always get it right. I find that very comforting. Thank you 🙂
Bless you too my friend, always good to see you here!
Ceil