Facing the Unevenness of Life

Upon arriving home last night, I found Gavin crying in my husband’s arms, recounting a terrible day at school. My heart broke for him and we took the opportunity for extra hugs and kind words.

Attempting to continue through the evening with some normalcy turned into a challenge.

Aiden, 1 ½, was having his own difficulties with the evening; finding everything frustrating and becoming more and more irritated.

Gavin decided that he wanted to play a board game and found extreme frustration that, between my household chores and Aiden’s inability to leave him alone, the board game just wasn’t going to happen.

The final straw for Gavin came when we decided to give Aiden a bath by himself, instead of allowing them to share bath time.

Let me explain-
Baths are Aiden’s favorite thing to do! We can’t even say the word in the house anymore or else he’ll make a beeline for the bathroom and jump up and down expecting the water to be turned on immediately. Many tantrums have been thrown because the word was used haphazardly and expectations were returned with disappointment. I fear that it won’t be much longer before we won’t be able to spell the word within earshot.
This time is typically shared between the boys but, with tonight’s difficulties, I figured it would be better to allow this time to be an opportunity for Aiden to unwind by himself…we definitely didn’t need bath time to turn into what the rest of the evening had already proven to be.

But Gavin saw it as “unfair” and found his heart hardened to my explanations. It was all “unfair”.
He had a bad day at school.
He couldn’t play a board game.
He couldn’t take a bath with Aiden…and on top of it, Aiden got to take his bath first.

Standing in the dining room he folded his arms and, looking downcast and grumpy, he mumbled about the unfairness.

I reached for my Bible and sat in the dining room chair and started thumbing to Matthew 25:14, asking him, “Do you know what God says about things that are unfair?”

Looking less grumpy, he asked “what?”

He sat down next to me and we read Matthew 25:14-29.

I explained to him that things are not necessarily “unfair”, but they are “uneven”.
Some people get 5 bags of silver, some people get 2 bags of silver, and some people get 1 bag of silver.
I asked him, “Is that unfair?”
He said “No, it’s just the way it is.”
I gave him a hug and said “Yes, you’re right.”
“But we ALL have the opportunity to do greater things with what we do have. You may only have one bag of silver right now, but take that bag and do great things with it.”

We then talked about how we use our “bags of silver” and how being grumpy or feeling gypped rarely leads to a prosperous end and how God is honored when we use our circumstances and situations to bring Him glory…even if it is merely with our behaviors and attitudes.
Gavin decided that he would use his “bag of silver” to have a friendlier attitude and to go about his evening in joy.

Today we awoke to our morning Bible study and Gavin recounted the story discussed last night. He decided that he would take his “bag of silver” and use it throughout his day at school. Good listening, friendly behavior and so on…

He left my loving hug this morning equipped to “use his silver”.
Sitting here, I don’t know how his day is panning out or how well he is facing his circumstances, but I do know that if today is not a total success…one day will be.