Doing Battle

Kate is almost two.  This means that for the last several months, things that previously were easy or happened without incident, now often involve...a battle.  Now I have always been a fan of "choosing your battles" or evaluating if something is really worth the head on collision that is going to occur.  Common battles for Kate and I:  diaper changes, getting her hair washed, picking up the bath toys, brushing her teeth, not telling me "no".  Battles I choose not to fight:  what socks/shoes/coat she wears, wearing pajamas to the office, climbing (most of the time).

Awhile back, I'd had several nights in a row of the bathtub battle.  Then all of a sudden, she happily laid down, got her her wet, soaped it up, and laid back down to rinse it out.  No crying, no being held down, no soap in her eyes, just a happy clean baby.  I realized that while no battle is fun while you are fighting it, and that while it is much easier sometimes to just give in to the two year old whim, if you never fight the battle, you never win the war.

What I mean by this is that if you never fight the battle, the battle keeps coming back because she knows that she will win.  And those unfortunate moments as a parent when you feel like you can't do anything but pull your hair out keep occurring.  The battles are not fun, but a permanent war with your toddler who thinks she can defeat you is even worse.

The same is true in our battle with sin.  The Bible tells us that we are all sinners.  It also tells us that when we receive Christ and the Holy Spirit we have help to defeat that sin, but it can still be a battle.  If we choose to never face the battle, but continue to give in to our temptation (whatever that may be for you) then we only allow the war to continue.  Those same temptations will only continue to come back to haunt us.  When we face the battle and win, sometimes we have to do so repeatedly, then we will eventually win the war and that temptation will lose its control over us.  And isn't that what we want, to be free from those sins that control us in order to live a more holy, pure life for Christ?

I pray that I will always have the courage to face my battles, with Kate for the sake of her character and development, and myself, for the sake of my own.