Lessons from a Preschooler

It was a beautiful day. A day much like the one in these photos: perfect for flying our spin box kite.
These pictures are from August. We're flying C-note's birthday kite for the first time. Anyways, back to the story. It was last Tuesday. A-team went down for his afternoon nap, and C-note and I went outside. The breeze gently tugged the kite upwards and soon it was spinning in the sky. We went out to the field behind our house, where there was no danger of our kite getting caught in a tree.
What a beautiful sunny day, I thought. I should have brought my camera. C-note is doing well holding the kite by himself. I'll just run in and get it.
"Are you ok by yourself for a minute while I go get my camera?" I ask.
"Yeah."
"Ok, I'll be right back!"
I do the hundred metre dash to the house and snatch my camera. Running back, I could see that he had walked towards the house, dangerously close to the line of pines which seperated the field from the house property. The kite was listing above two of the pine trees.
As I approached, the kite was slowly descending....
"C-note, you're too close to the trees!"
It was too late.
Not only did it land on the top of a tree, the string was wrapped around the one beside it.
I. Was. So. Mad.
Irrationally so.
Why didn't I tell him to sit and wait for me? Why didn't I just stay there and enjoy the moment? Why did the wind have to die down right at that moment? Why did the kite have to get stuck in TWO trees? Why did it have to land on TOP of the tree where there's no possible way to reach it??
ARG!
What was C-note doing while I fumed away in my mind, yanking on the string? Enjoying time outside. Chattering away happily, picking up acorns. Asking me to take their caps off. Running around in the grass.
My normally sensitive boy, (takes after his mommy) barely reacted to this situation. The kite got stuck in a tree. He couldn't do anything about it. It just happened, that's all. Time to move on. What else is there to do?Why couldn't I think that way?
I'm still learning how to let things go, and keeping a rein on my temper. I would never discipline in anger, or lash out at anyone. I must not act or speak unless emotions are under control (being “quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger,” as James 1:19 directs us. To be angry at such a little thing as a kite stuck in a tree? It isn't appropriate to react that way to something so small in the big picture of life. If I am to raise children with godly character, I must strive to reflect that character to them.
I pray that God will work his Spirit in me so that I may die to my old nature, and strive to raise my children to be Christlike!
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
Eph. 4:22-24