Wants and Asking

It’s incredible to me that a two-year-old knows how to operate a DVD player.  Our son, Davey Will, loves to watch videos, and he actually knows how to put the DVD’s in the player and get them going.  It’s amazing to me.

 

Now, I still try to do most of the handling of the DVD’s myself, because our toddler hasn’t yet learned the proper way to hold them to keep them from getting scratched and all.  But I often let Davey Will pick out the video he wants to watch, and then I put it in for him.

 

But picking DVD’s can be tricky.  For instance, sometimes Disney DVD’s include not only the disc that actually contains the animated film, but another disc that has “special features.”  The discs tend to be decorated about the same, so little two-year-old eyes cannot discern the difference.

 

And so it is that my little boy has, at times, asked for me to put in the Jungle Book Special Features disc.  He loves the movie, the “Jungle Book,” and so I assume that’s what he wants to watch.  But when I go to put the right disc in the player, he gets upset.  He thinks that I’m not giving him what he clearly asked for.  Which, in reality, is true.  I know he asked for the behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of Jungle Book, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what he really wants to watch.  (He has watched it on occasion, though!)  So, as he’s fussing and rapidly approaching “temper tantrum” stage, I get a little bit frustrated.  In my heart, I want to say, “Look, I’m going to give you what you want, not what you asked for!”

 

And then I realize how often I can be like a two-year-old boy.  I can get so upset when God doesn’t give me what I asked for.  But maybe God, in His infinite wisdom, knows much better than we do what we really want.  And in His incredible grace He allows us to fuss and whine while He moves to give us what we want, not what we asked for.