“Don’t you want to go to Church today?”
“My Daddy, it is ice cream I want.”
That was the first conversation between my son and I last Sunday. Sunday morning!
Right now, my wife and I could easily liken him to Samuel because of his love for Church. And isn’t it rather interesting that we named him after the Jewish king who had said, “I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.”
Anyway, I managed to pacify him, asking him to let Church service end before we would make the trip to his ice cream place. I mean, it made no sense to me to drive straight to a place I was certain to still pass through later that day.
When service ended, the chorus resumed – “Daddy, I want ice cream.”Again, I explained that we needed to return home to prepare for our Sunday post-service outing, assuring him that he would have his ice cream on our way. Little friend tried playing a fast one when he asked me to at least buy him small Fan Ice yoghurt since the place for the ice cream he wanted was not near. Errmm, I denied him that luxury too and told him he needed to learn patience.
Fast forward to the time to leave home when my phone rang. The result of this call meant we had to reach our destination by another route, meaning the ice cream dream vanished into thin air, for some more time. By now, David was visibly vexed and grumbled till sleep eventually stole on him.
Arriving our destination, I woke him and resumed trying to pacify him with something apart from ice cream but he would not have anything apart from Shoprite ice cream. Yikes.
Somehow, I had my way at some point and ‘bribed’ him with ‘something else.’ We agreed that this was a temporary fix and that he would still have his ice cream later.
The return journey home started and the boy who would normally sleep off before we get home was wide awake and alert.
“Should I buy you suya?”
“I want suya…and ice cream too.”
His insistence on having what he wanted impressed me. It was a way of saying, “I do not mind what you are offering but my eyes are firmly locked on what I actually want.”
Eventually, we got to the mall and he started towards his desired ice cream vendor’s shop, ever so happily. Here’s what my boy did not know: I had better plans than what he had wanted for himself. So I stopped abruptly. As you can expect from a loving four-year-old, the looked at me, clearly worried. That alone moved my heart so deeply, wondering if he thought I would delay or evade, yet again.
“What is it, Daddy?”
Smiling, I let him know that I would get him ice cream in a place that had something better and costlier than what he had originally wanted. As I have won his trust over time, he waited and watched on as the attendant served his creamy goodness with toppings. He couldn’t have been happier as he received the well-packaged ice cream. As a bonus, I made sure to gift him with the one he had wanted initially.
Many times, we keep crying out to God for something while He is quietly planning ‘something else’ that is much better for us. David wanted something, but I wanted something better for him and because he was patient, he eventually got both what I knew was better for him and the initial one that he thought so good that he desired it.
Far too often, we reach out for things all by ourselves. But we need to learn to trust God 100% because at no time does He not have ‘something’ much better than we desire for ourselves. You want something immediately but God might seem to be ‘delaying it’ because he has something much better for you.
By striving to claim what we want, we tell God to hands off from the assumption that we can do it. I imagine that at such times, this Supreme Person who knows our hearts shakes his head as we pursue the substandard desires of our hearts. Only if we would realise that so much comes easy and things fall in place by trusting God and doing the specific things that communicates that faith, which God will plant firmly within our hearts.
What do we need? Patience and absolute trust in The Almighty, as the One who delivers cheaply what our desires when we would rather slave and sweat for. Never forget too, that it is this genuine attitude of being assured of his goodness that delivers to us, life’s best toppings.
Be like little King David and watch the best quality of goodness delivered to you.
Peace and Blessings!!! Wish me the same with just a comment below.
OSCARPOEMS 