Chinese Water Torture

This is what Anthony calls the kids constant no-stop request for our time and attention. Parents of young children know what I'm talking about.


Mommy, can you play a game with me?
Daddy, where are you?
Mommy, will you play Barbies with me?
Daddy, let's read a book.
Mommy, what are you doing?
Daddy, can you play football?
Mommy, can you listen to me read this book?
Daddy, can you watch me play the piano?

On and on it goes. I realize it sounds bad that I don't necessarily want do all these things, but I do want to point out that I could play baseball for 2 hours and it doesn't matter. Joshua doesn't grasp that I need to go inside to get dinner ready or fold laundry or some other unimportant item. So after a while it gets a little old and we often tell them NO. On our not so great days we get sarcastic. On our really not so great days don't even conceal that we don't like playing.

But here's what I've noticed... Anna and Joshua are really good at forgiving us. No matter how many times we refuse their requests in an unloving way, no matter how often we speak to them with unhelpful dripping sarcasm, they still come back for more. They just really want their mom and dad to play with them. I find that pretty interesting. In the grown up world, if someone treated us like that, you'd just walk away and not look back. But God has wired Anna and Josh to still really love being with us.

There's some kind of wonderful lesson in there for us.