God's Control

Nolan, who will be four in a couple of weeks, and I were sitting on the front porch waiting for Audrey's bus to arrive. We had just come from the back yard where I was crocheting a white necklace and he was bringing me bugs he liked to watch roll up into balls.

In my experience with my own kids and grandkids, the transition from a three-year-old to a four-year-old is obvious. No longer little babies, the four-year-old becomes a child, and Nolan is making that transition in some pretty astounding ways.

After a few jumps out of my chair where I avoided the dirt he wanted to place on my leg so I could watch the bug roll up into a little ball ON MY LEG, he agreed to stand close to the chair but not so close he would drop dirt onto my lap, and I could watch the bug in his hand.

He had already ridden his bicycle and his scooter, and he had already played on the swing set before he delved into the dirt that sits in a heap next to the garage.

Now it was time for Audrey to come home, so we sat on the porch listening to the sounds of the birds and waiting for the yellow school bus that would stop a block away, clearly seen from our front porch.

After a couple of minutes, Nolan broke the silence with this question: Does God have a controller that makes us walk and talk?

A smile swept across my face. How did he ever come up with a question like that? Before I could answer him, I had to know where that came from.

"What made you ask that question?" I wanted to know.

"I don't know, but does He?"

"Did somebody else you know ask that question? Did you hear it somewhere?"

"No."

"Well," I went one, "God doesn't control anything you do. Every day, all day, you control what you do by the choices you make. You decide how you are going to act."

"Really? God doesn't have a controller?"

Yes, really. Later, after mom and dad had come home and dinner was cleared, tornado warning sirens caused Brittney and Audrey to race to one door. Nolan ran to another door. Through the sirens, we heard, "What the hell?"

And once again, Nolan was asked, "Where did you hear that?" Only this time, noting the concern in his parents' eyes, he broke down in tears. Brittney picked him up and held him, and explained that we don't use those words, and he eventually calmed down.

The storm calmed too, eventually. We never found out where he heard those words, possibly from watching youtube videos on my iPhone. He's supposed to ask permission before he clicks a video. However, I sometimes find myself grabbing it from him when he doesn't ask and I hear things he shouldn't be watching.

But Nolan is learning how to be a four-year-old and he's learning about how much control he has over his own life.

The video above, an Easter play put on by Audrey and Nolan, is actually Part II of the original video. Part I, the introduction, took up so much time that I ran out of space on my camera before the entire play was complete.

If you would like to read more from this author, click any of the following links:

Your Weird Dreams

Your Blog Connection

Help For Single Parents 

My Heart Blogs To You 

Writing Creatively

Paranormal Minds

Product Favorites

Theresa Wiza's Blog 

My Associated Content Articles

My Xomba Articles 

Thank you for visiting!

How Sushi Became an iPhone

Every year as a combination birthday/Christmas present, my son and his family fly me out to visit them in Oceanside, California. Usually, because my daycare job doesn't allow me to stay longer than a weekend, I am there for only 3 days at the most. This year, however, I was lucky enough to spend 5 days with them!

I've missed a lot of my son's life over the years. As a U.S. Marine who was born in Illinois (where I live) and who is now living in California, Greg was stationed in North Carolina and has been to Japan (for a year), to Thailand (for several months), to Iraq (four times), and to Kuwait (twice) – so whenever I am given the opportunity to spend time with him and his family, it never matters what we do, where we go, what we eat – what matters is that I am spending time with him and with them.

One night we were discussing what to eat for dinner and everybody (I thought) decided on Chinese. Fine by me. As I said, it doesn't matter to me where we eat or what we eat.

So when we pulled in front of a sushi restaurant, I thought, hmm, well, I must have missed this part of the conversation. I've never had sushi, but if this is what the family has decided, I'll try it. Greg was the only one to get out of the car, so I assumed we were picking up the sushi (and not the Chinese) and taking it home.

Then Greg asked me if I wanted to go with him. Well, yeah – anything to spend time together, even if it's just picking up sushi from the local sushi stop. But as I was getting out of the car Michelle warned, "You'd better bring your purse. You'll need your ID."

Oh, OK. They NEVER ask me to pay for anything and, as a matter of fact, REFUSE to allow me to pay for anything, so I was more than willing to foot the bill for dinner. But why would I need an ID to purchase it?

Well, come to think of it, this IS California, and I've heard that sometimes people die from eating sushi, so maybe the state of California is keeping track of who is eating it.

Yes, I really do think that way.

But we walked past the sushi restaurant and into a store that sells iPhones. What? We're not eating sushi?

No, we're getting you an iPhone. Their reason for giving me an extra present was that they were "paying me" to watch the kids. I don't think I'm senile (though I'm sure somebody in my family would argue with me about that). I honestly don't remember ever doing anything that would require them to pay me for doing it.

So this is my reasoning: I take the kids to the park and I get an iPhone. What would they give me if I took the kids to the zoo? A laptop? Or how about a trip to Disneyland? My own plane?

Still this is the greatest toy ever (besides my computer)! And I am so grateful to them for receiving it.

So – Greg, Michelle, Taylor, Kaden, and Zac, thank you thank you thank you – for the trip, for always making me feel welcome, and for giving me another way to keep in touch with you.

Photo of sushi is from Wikimedia Commons. Photo of iPhone is from Apple.