Cherished Possessions

Elisabeth has been missing her daddy a lot lately, as have I. He is on his internal medicine rotation and leaves before we wake up and often comes home after Elisabeth has already gone to bed. The last few nights I've been keeping her up a little later so that she can see him, if only for a short while.

Being a first time parent has proved to be very challenging for us! One of our obstacles is knowing what to allow Elisabeth to play with and what she shouldn't touch. We want to teach her to be obedient to us, but not be legalistic about it. We struggle with her touching two things repeatedly even though she knows she is not allowed to. One being the remote...she's pretty good about it, but if she is in a rebellious streak (a little more often lately than we like), then she will head straight for it! The second object of desire is her daddy's Bible. Brian reads to her every night and puts her to bed shortly after. At first I didn't want her to play with his Bible because I didn't want her to tear the fine pages. Then it became an obedience thing.

Elisabeth and I woke up on Wednesday morning after Brian had already been gone for a couple of hours and upon walking into the living room I told her not to touch daddy's Bible or she would have to sit out (we leave it out because she needs to know her boundaries...we can't put everything away...that wouldn't teach her much). She understood what I was telling her and stayed away from it for a few hours. However I got caught up doing something around lunch time, and lo and behold, the deafening silence caught my attention...that always spells trouble for Elisabeth. I saw her sitting in the recliner where Brian reads to her and rocks her to sleep and my heart broke. First because I had to follow through with what I had told her...touch the Bible and it will be time to sit out. Second, because I knew she missed her daddy and that was how she was trying to connect with him.

I followed through with my warning and as I was putting her in her spot to sit out (we don't call it time out...those of you who know Brian well know what a sports fanatic, dare I say freak, he is! He doesn't want our children to someday confuse a time out in sports with the negative consequence of misbehaving! Fine, we will call it sitting out...I don't mind!) So, I'm sitting her out and my heart is so heavy because this tiny little girl just wants her daddy. She is all the while crying and saying, "Dada Biba, Dada Biba!" I sat her down and prayed for wisdom and decided that if that is how she can spend time with her dad, then she can have the Bible (I texted Brian and he, melted heart and all, agreed). And have the Bible she has! Since I gave it to her on Wednesday, it has been her constant companion. And I must say that she has taken pretty good care of it. We've only taped a few pages! And I might add that her behavior is better as well. Maybe our reins have been a little too tight...

It is precious to see her with this book. She loves it and cherishes it, because it is her daddy's book. My prayer is that in time she will grow to love this book because it is her Father's book.