Like a Child

Last week Brian took Joshua hunting.
It was Joshua's first time out, and he was thrilled.
They got a new gun - and it is very cool! They bought boots and gloves, and found the bright orange gear, too. A few weeks ago they bought a grunt call. (I think that's what you call it. The little tube-thing that makes sounds like a deer. Joshua has been practicing. A LOT!) It has been a very exciting time for him, and I have enjoyed watching his anticipation.
He'll be thirteen in less than two months, and Brian keeps talking about calling him into manhood. Guess that's part of what this hunting expedition was all about. Father and son - out together, doing manly things.
But I discovered something during the hunt. While Joshua was 'becoming a man,' I found myself becoming more like a child.

It's like this:

They got up super early to hunt Monday morning, and were going to go out again in the afternoon. I knew Joshua would be tired when he got home - that he would just want to eat some dinner and go to bed. So Monday morning I emptied the dishwasher for him before I went to work.
When I got home from work, the guys had already left for the afternoon hunt. They had also left the kitchen a mess from lunch. I knew they were probably in a rush to eat and get Joshua to school, so I figured I'd clean it up later.
I changed my clothes quickly and went to the store to get groceries.
After I got home and put the groceries away, I started making dinner. Which, of course, meant cleaning up the kitchen first. And in the course of cleaning and preparing, I discovered the trash was in desperate need of emptying. But that's Joshua's job!
I was tired and rushed, and quickly growing weary of 'picking up after' and 'doing for' my young hunter. I packed and crammed the garbage into it's container. Because I was NOT going to do that chore for Joshua, too!

No, sir.

I started to think about the times when I go away for one reason, or another. No one does my chores when I'm gone. Oh, no! The jobs remain undone until I get home to take care of them. I always get to come home to a pile of 'stuff' to do. Always!
Why should it be any different for anyone else? Why, I shouldn't have even unloaded the dishwasher this morning! No way I'm going to empty the trash, too. No way!

And there - pushing more trash into the container, trrryyying to make it fit - God gave me pause to recognize how childish I was being.
So I took out the bag, tied it up, and put it in the garbage bin.
Hoping that's where my childish attitude will stay, too.

I'm not the only adult who acts like a child sometimes, am I?