Lesson From Potty Training

"The low points in motherhood are potty training and driver's training."

I think that my friend's mom has it right. At least the potty training part. (Thankfully, Zachary's not old enough to learn how to drive!) There are so many theories and methods for potty training a mom could get lost. I would love to do infant potty training, but for some reason we've never really given it a go. I just read another article about it that made me wonder if Eleanor is still little enough to try it with.

When I was first gathering information about potty training Zachary I asked a friend who has many kids what to do. She wasn't really sure. I thought that was funny considering she had five or six kids who seemed to be pottying by themselves! Now I understand what she meant. I have three kids who are pretty much trained, and I don't feel like anything I did made a difference at all.

Zachary took forever, and then suddenly was trained after being pretty sick soon after he turned three. Quinlan got trained on accident in less than two days two months after he turned two. I was quite hopeful when I had heard that girls are easier. But Veronica has taken Zachary's path of foreverness and is only just now going potty consistently. Of course, with each of these, there's a longer story!

It seems that no matter what I do or try, this is something that is out of my hands. If I needed yet another reminder that I don't have control over anything, I think this would be it. God has taken everything in my life and used it to show me over and over again that He is in control and I'm just along for the ride. No matter how hard I try to make my will happen, God's will is stronger and overrides my own desires.

That doesn't mean that I get to stop trying! I am still responsible for doing my best to train them. He uses me in their lives and the lives of others. But it does mean a thought and attitude shift as I go about my day. I can look around for the opportunities God has placed before me and submit my will to His larger plan each and every day.

I think that the Lord is trying to show me that this is how He works in other areas of my children's lives, as well. I need to pour my time and energy into them. I need to train them and discipline them. I need to love them and hug them. But in the end, how they turn out is all God's doing. I can try to take credit myself, or I can give Him the praise and glory for how He's working in my children's lives. And I can learn this now before those teen years!