Oh Poop! It's time to change!

One of my daycare babies is holding out. He just isn't ready to stop pooping in his underpants. He can make it to pee every time, but with no regrets, poops in his underwear for me nearly once every day. Today, I coached him throughout the morning....

"Where are you going to put your poop at Dani's?"
"In the Potty."
"Right! When you have to go poop, you are going to sit on the potty. No pooping in your underwear today?"
"Nope."

An hour or so after the last coaching, sure as anything, he pooped in his underwear. Again, I took him aside,

"Did we talk about pooping today?"
"I don't know."
"Did Dani ask you to put your poop somewhere special?"
"I don't know."
"Did you go poop in your underwear?"
"Yep, I did!" (BIG GRIN)
"And is that where the poop goes at Dani's house?"
"No, it goes in the potty."
"And do you know WHY?"
"I don't know." (BIG GRIN, AGAIN)
"Do you want to put your poop in the potty at Dani's?"
"Next time I will."

Besides the fact that this dialogue speaks to POOP (and therefore delights half the readers of this blog...) it made my really think about things we say we can commit to, and simply cannot or will not. I think about the things God has asked me to do--has asked me to be. There are certainly things I am used to doing--old habits--and they don't put me out much to keep them in my life. There is that snap-to-judgment place my comments can go....there are those unnumbered ways I can distract myself from doing something more VALID, and there are certainly opportunities for self-improvement I let pass. (Yes, these are the pooping in my pants analogies) But I KNOW my Father desires for me to reach a new maturity--new plateau--and train myself to be in a better state of being. And, on some level, though I offer up my prayers to Him and do my best to convince Him (and me) that I am desiring and reaching and ready to make those changes--He and I both know I am not there. Maybe I don't understand why they are important. Or, more likely, maybe I DO but am too frightened or stubborn to change for Him in that way. After all, I've been a fairly likable person the way I have been (even while messing myself in such 'innocent ways'). Maybe the change isn't ALL that necessary to be pleasing to others, or pleasing to God. (It is easy to make excuses to not be who we are meant to be....why is that?)

Still, at the end of it, I am still not where I COULD be, and really, giving lip service to "Next time I will" isn't worth much to me or to Him until I really mean it.

And, until then, I can't rightly complain about how I feel, or what that STINK is....

I've made it, and am sitting in it all on my own.

(Isn't it great how philosophical I can be about POO?) ;)


ps. Clay, thank you! You are a great man, and great friend. I will find time to sit and watch the DVD an ponder your words. I am not sure I am ready to wholly take them all in....but I am willing to try. I will try. hugs and love!