Outta Control At Four?

My oldest boy, at the tender age of 4 1/2 has already started showing signs of blatant lying...and he genuinely thinks that he is snowing me with his serious attempt at veiling the truth of the situation. There is nothing that will sober up a parent from the thought that they are in total control of their child as trying to compete with a toddler who is convinced that mommy or daddy is buying the schpeel they are feeding.

I makes me feel like I am loosing control of my children and they haven't even reached puberty yet, much less started having feelings for the opposite sex. But as I ponder this, I am also made aware that this is exactly how God feels. As a parent, I am partly responsible for bringing a new life into the world. God is primarily responsible for creating life into this world...namely, mankind. For a parent there is a nice 3 to 4 year honeymoon where everything you say is soaked up into the little developing brain of that child. Then suddently, that little brain gets a mind of its own & thinks it can pull a shiner over mommy & daddy.

We, too, think that after a few years as a new Christian, we know more than our Creator. Wonder if God feels any worse than a parent does? Each time our child lies or somehow breaks a trust that was established between us as their parent, we should be reminded that this is the same situation God finds Himself in when we act out of our own desires or persuasions instead of following His. We wash our kid's mouth out with soap or send them to their room or even execute corporal punishment when we find our child has committed some atrocity. How does God treat us when we break fellowship with Him?

He does discipline us when we err...and how do we react? Do we react the same way our children do when we reproove or correct tthem? My 4-year old cries profusely & shows great contrition and repentance when he is corrected...it' s more than obvious that he desires to have a restored fellowship with me...that he doesn't want to have this feeling of being severed from his connection to his father. Do we crave to be restored in such a way when God corrects or reprooves us?

While I may feel that my son may be out of control at the tender age of 4, I'm sure there are many times God may think I am out of control at the ripe old age of 40.