Aren’t You Forgetting Something?

It may be the most creative question in the history of the world. Out of the blue, with no warning whatsoever, my son loves to ask, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Then he loves to wait in silence to see if I can guess from the 43 billion possible things his overactive five-year-old brain is thinking about!

It makes me laugh -until it’s the fifth time he asks while I am trying to concentrate on reading the paper. Then, it starts to wear on me.

It’s in those moments (and a million like them) that I wonder what it would be like if my wife, Jill, were still alive. She was so good with children –and much more patient than I.

When I talk to friends about it, they say that when he gets a little older we will have more in common and it will be easier to have meaningful conversations. While that sounds great, I have a fear that if I don’t have quality dialogue with Bryce now, he may not feel comfortable sharing openly with me later.

It causes me to wonder what kind of conversations Jill would have with him.

As curious as I am about the “what if’s,” it doesn’t change reality: I am a single dad. I didn’t pray for it, plan for it, or prepare for it. However, nothing about my situation came as a surprise to God.

My Heavenly Father was not surprised when my wife passed away. He didn’t panic and say, “I don’t know if Scott will be ready for this.” Instead, through His Word, He says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

God’s grace is my only hope for being a good parent. I know that in all my failures, God is faithful. Likewise, because of God’s sufficiency, my son never has to suffer because of my insufficiency –even in conversation!

Stepping back, I imagine that I approach God a lot like my son approaches me –with random, incoherent ramblings. However, God never lets my inadequate communication with Him discourage His faithful communication to me through the Word. And that’s a great example for me to remember.

So the next time it seems like conversation with my son is too difficult, I’ll just ask myself, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”