Rambunctious kid … Rebellious me…

Working with little munchkins is not what they call in Spanish my “forte” or the word we know as strength in English. There are two things on this Earth that you can be sure of… #1. I will never be the first or second or third or even fourth in church to raise my hand to volunteer my time and efforts to babysit kids on Mom’s day out and # 2- I’ll never be that elated girl in the room begging to hold the newborn at the sight of that little wrinkly bald headed little eyed babe enter the room. With that being said…. Deep down, I do love little kids as you can read about in my blog titled And Kelsey Sang and I do hope to have a couple miniature Brookes running around someday- my own little moldable disciples. However, give me a rebellious teenager any day over a little rambunctious five year old kid. With this preface, I will begin my story of what happened today and how God turned it on me.

My words, thoughts, and Karen’s movement from 4:00 to 5:00 today:

“Siéntate chamaca” (sit down chica)… “Vas a volverme loca” (You are going to drive me crazy)… well, that last phrase shouldn’t have been in the future tense…. She was up walking on top of the kitchen counters... She was eating jello… She was finding a glass of water… She was looking for her gummy vitamin candies… She was flipping over my poster… She was changing the subject…. The list goes on… then finally for a moment she stopped and sat Indian style on the top of the counter in front of me… the poster of the ABC’s in the middle of us… we started with A and got through to letter D when she had to get up again… She came back three minutes later with her notebook… She decided to write the letters which took forever than wanted to write them again… She was ignoring me... Yes, every now and then she would repeat the sound but it took me saying it five times for her to repeat it once…. And then after that one time of repeating the letter she wanted to go to the next letter, and it didn’t matter if she didn’t say the previous letter right…. She wanted to learn all 26 letters at once with the least amount of effort as possible…. Then after I got through to the letter F she decided it was time for another unannounced break…. My eyes trailed her little body as she walked barefoot on the counter to the stove… She plopped down and took a large spoon out of a dark pot on the stove and started licking off the black beans…. You would have thought it was raw cake batter the way she licked that sucker clean… and by the time she finished, her face and teeth were coated by a thin layer of black beans… it was quite humorous and it caused me to take out my camera and take a picture… and of course my camera started a frenzy… she wanted to take some pictures so I went ahead and let her take some and then some more and a couple more and a couple more…. You can tell by my facial expression from the last picture that the words following this picture were “Karen, dame la camara” (give me the camera).

Sweet reader, let’s just say that my numerous and stern warnings that we were not going to play a game until after she learned her alphabet was to no avail. The game was Bingo and of course this game would never have worked if she didn’t know her letters. I couldn’t seem to do anything to keep her attention for longer than 35 seconds. I finally looked down at her older sister, Erin, who was patiently sitting by my side. Our eyes met, mine silently pleading for help and hers rolling back into her head. Her shoulders shrugged as she softly spoke the following English words in her cute and irresistible accent, “My sister is crazy.” It was undeniable and also endearing how she put an extra emphasis on the word crazy as if her pronunciation added depth to the meaning. She wasn’t just crazy but craazzzyy. After all hope seemed to be lost, I came up with a different game plan. I decided that we would play Bingo even though Erin would inevitably win because she knew the alphabet as well as she knew every word to her favorite Hannah Montana song. This would then create jealousy within her little sister which would then cultivate into a strong desire to learn the alphabet. I knew I could bank on little Karen’s competiveness and jealousy just as I could count on black beans and tortillas being served for lunch. And magically it worked- Karen got upset at how her older sister knew the letters which sparked a sudden interest in her to learn the ABC’s in English. I chucked to myself as I left their apartment, thinking of how effective my little devious plan worked.

I chuckled until God interrupted my thoughts with His Holy, Higher Up, ever Humbling, Loving thoughts. And all of sudden, it was as if a light had been turned off and a red curtain pulled back…. I suddenly saw the Karen episode replay in my mind but some major roles had been changed. I, Brooke Carter (the twenty-two year old college graduate), took on the starring role of little rambunctious 5 year old Karen as I bounced barefoot on the kitchen counters, distracted by the littlest thing, unfocused as all get out, and rebellious to the core. And then The Lord Almighty, The God of Jacob, My Creator and My Father, slipped on my human flesh skin, propped Himself up on the blue stool, and began to coax me to sit down because He had something He wanted to teach me. I knew He was there just as Karen knew I was there but it was a matter of me stopping what I was doing and sitting down on the counter, Indian style, in front of my Teacher and listening to His Words. What He had wanted to teach me was not hard because a) He was going to break something as scary and big as the English language down into the ABC’s b) He had a colorful poster with pictures, a song, and a game to go along with the lesson to help me learn and c) He was going to go as slow as it took for me to comprehend each letter. But instead of submitting myself to my Teacher’s authority, I went about my own business. For instance, I was hungry so I ate some jello and black beans. I was thirsty so I went to find a glass of water. I also needed to get up again and locate my gummy vitamin candies because I hadn’t consumed them today. Clearly as you can tell, I was taking care of my needs and desires; however, I was neglecting my most vital need …. I was neglecting my one on one time with God… I wasn’t doing per say bad things and yeah I acknowledged His presence every now and then as I repeated a certain sound after He had said it the fifth time…. But I wasn’t sitting still, in front of Him, soaking in His infinite knowledge. I wasn’t watching His mouth as He pronounced the words. I wasn’t watching His eyes encouraging me to take that step and say that letter that sounded uncomfortable and weird. I wasn’t in close enough proximity where He could give me a high five after I said something right or reassuringly rub my shoulder if I said something wrong. And then my time was up, and I missed the opportunity to fully learn what He had wanted to teach me. It wasn’t His fault for He had patiently and lovingly waited for me to come to Him but I didn’t take the time out of my day and submit myself to Him to enjoy His presence and fully receive what He had to offer. I in turn, was just like that beautiful black bean stained craazzzyy little girl and the question is how many days am I like that? It took my experience today to realize that I have been missing out on God’s presence this past week… It’s funny the ways God can grab your attention… It definitely took a little rambunctious girl for me to see the rebellious girl in me.

Please stay with me a little bit longer…. I have two big questions for you…. But first you have to realize that God is in the same room as you. He is sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for you. He loves you. He wants to spend time with you. He is there. The Creator of the Universe is lovingly watching you; in fact, He is calling out to you. It is a matter of you, hearing His call, stopping what you are doing, sitting down, and receiving Him.

Questions

1. Have you ever submitted yourself to God? Have you realized yet that the one thing you are desperately searching for will not be satisfied with things of this world? Your jello, black beans, water, and candy vitamins will never be enough to keep you from stopping your carousel ride of finding fullfillment? In essence, have you ever sat down and received His love?

2.If you have received His love, are you daily spending time with God? If you are not, it doesn’t make you less of a Christian just an unnourished one. God’s presence is something unrivaled. His sweet presence is worth stopping your busy activity and sitting down on the counter. What else is there to life than knowing and being loved by God?

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
Psalms 63:1