Daddy Rage
I just had my first bout of daddy rage today...no-it wasn't geared towards my kids. The story goes something like this...
We were at McDonalds in Mission. We had previously told Riley he could play in the play place after we ate...stupid move cause he wouldn't eat a bit until he played. So we played...kind of. We could have played if it weren't for a certain kid.
Riley was up at the very top of this tube structure when all of a sudden this kid crawled over to Riley and started screaming at the top of his lungs in his face. So Riley being the passive kid he is just yelled back "Too Loud!". This kid screamed even louder. He then proceeded to take Riley's hat and hit him with it and throw it down the tube. Of course, as he's getting roughed up, Riley starts to cry.
Meanwhile, his mom and dad were right beside me. The dad is kind of telling his kid to stop but all the while he's laughing. Too be honest the thought running through my head was "This guy's pretty big...I'm not sure I could take him." I know it's childish and just like this guys kid was behaving but until you have kids, you won't know what this feeling is like.
So after a few minutes of this garbage I said out loud "That's it" and started to climb into the structure. I got to the top and sent the kid down the slide and tried to coax my kid out.
Sometimes I don't think we give God enough credit as a Father. We gripe and complain when bad things happen to us even when we've been really really good. And then we wonder where God was in the middle of the whole thing. Just like I could see my son looking at my through the tears in his eyes saying "Come and get me out of this", I think God looks at us as we're stuck and I'm willing to bet he feels the same frustration and hurt as I did, if not more.
What I don't realize so many times is that this pain is part of me being shaped into the man I was born to be. I hate it when I'm going through it, but when I arrive at the other end I can see how far I've come. As much as I looked up and saw my son stuck in this tube being harrassed by a bully and wanted to knock his dad out, I know that Riley will go through so much more of this in his life and he needs to learn how to handle it properly. My heart freaks out when I see it but if I rescued him every time he would have no way to navigate through life without breaking down and crying.
I think maybe it's time I stop giving God such a hard time.
We were at McDonalds in Mission. We had previously told Riley he could play in the play place after we ate...stupid move cause he wouldn't eat a bit until he played. So we played...kind of. We could have played if it weren't for a certain kid.
Riley was up at the very top of this tube structure when all of a sudden this kid crawled over to Riley and started screaming at the top of his lungs in his face. So Riley being the passive kid he is just yelled back "Too Loud!". This kid screamed even louder. He then proceeded to take Riley's hat and hit him with it and throw it down the tube. Of course, as he's getting roughed up, Riley starts to cry.
Meanwhile, his mom and dad were right beside me. The dad is kind of telling his kid to stop but all the while he's laughing. Too be honest the thought running through my head was "This guy's pretty big...I'm not sure I could take him." I know it's childish and just like this guys kid was behaving but until you have kids, you won't know what this feeling is like.
So after a few minutes of this garbage I said out loud "That's it" and started to climb into the structure. I got to the top and sent the kid down the slide and tried to coax my kid out.
Sometimes I don't think we give God enough credit as a Father. We gripe and complain when bad things happen to us even when we've been really really good. And then we wonder where God was in the middle of the whole thing. Just like I could see my son looking at my through the tears in his eyes saying "Come and get me out of this", I think God looks at us as we're stuck and I'm willing to bet he feels the same frustration and hurt as I did, if not more.
What I don't realize so many times is that this pain is part of me being shaped into the man I was born to be. I hate it when I'm going through it, but when I arrive at the other end I can see how far I've come. As much as I looked up and saw my son stuck in this tube being harrassed by a bully and wanted to knock his dad out, I know that Riley will go through so much more of this in his life and he needs to learn how to handle it properly. My heart freaks out when I see it but if I rescued him every time he would have no way to navigate through life without breaking down and crying.
I think maybe it's time I stop giving God such a hard time.
