Wait for the Wind

Recently we bought a kite for the boys at Sam's Club.  It's this great big kite that looks like a robot, and the boys were brimming with excitement.  All we had to do was wait for the right day with some wind. 

One evening after Aaron got home we decided to go for it.  We weren't sure if the wind would be strong enough or not, but we had to try!  Malachi was especially looking forward to it.

We drove over to Bittersweet Park, where there is plenty of room for kite flying.  The flags at the monument were waving bravely in the wind, and we hoped that meant good things for our endeavour.  We warned the boys that there might not be enough wind, but that we would try.

We released the kite from its box and put it together.  Aaron tried first to see if he could get it into the air.  Time and time again, it would fly for a minute or two and then come crashing down.  There was wind, but not quite enough to keep it alfoat for a long period of time. 

After several of these tries, Aaron decided there was not enough wind and we took the boys over to the playground.  Izzy and Simeon were perfectly fine with this turn of events, but Malachi was heartbroken.  He so wanted to fly that kite!  We tried to explain that there just wsn't enough wind, but he desperately wanted to have a turn flying it.  Finally Aaron went back out in the open field with him and tried to give a few short-lived turns with the flying robot.

Before long it began to get cold and the sun began to set and we were getting hungry; it was time to go.  Even though Aaron had tried to accomodate Chi, he was still very disappointed with how things had gone.  He had been able to fly the kite a few times, but it just wasn't quite enough for him.  What's more, he blamed Aaron for all of it.  Somehow it was Daddy's fault that the kite would not fly.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, he was in tears, and nothing we said, from comforting words to telling him to just be thankful for what he got, could help.

Today Aaron and I were talking about it again, and it struck me how similarly we act with God sometimes.  We have a beautiful new kite and we want to fly it.  We want to fly it now!  So we take it to the park and we try our best, but there isn't enough wind.  And we blame God.  Nevermind that we are attempting to fly the kite in the wrong conditions, somehow it is God's fault.  We want what we want, and we want it now, and God should just make the wind happen when we want it to, we shouldn't have to wait until the right time...right? 

How often do we blame God for situations that we have gotten ourselves into?  We didn't ask Him for guidance, or if we did, we didn't wait for an answer.  Or maybe we got an answer, "There's not enough wind right now, you need to wait," and we didn't like it, so we did what we wanted anyway.

This hits home for me.  This is one of those moments when my children exasperate me with how they act and then I realize that I do the same thing.  It's rather humbling.  There have been many times when I wanted it my way and didn't care if it was the right time or not.  But if I would have waited, I might have found my kite flying high instead of crashing to the ground.  I might have found the result to be joy instead of tears and frustration. 

In the end, I'm encouraged.  I'm encouraged to trust Him, and to be thankful for what I have, even if it isn't always exactly what I want.