Obedience

I have a 3 year old. She's having trouble with obedience, particularly in obeying me. Any of you reading this who have or have had a 3 year old will understand that it's not been fun lately. The terrible twos are NOTHING compared with what happens when your child turns 3.

This is an example of a typical 'discussion':
ME "Miss 3 please go to the toilet before we go out."
MISS 3 "I don't want to."
ME "Please go to the toilet - we can't go until you do."
MISS 3 "No I don't want to."
ME "Miss 3 go to the toilet now! Otherwise you won't be coming."
MISS 3 [silence, she continues playing]
ME [voice raised] "I am going without you unless you go now!"
MISS 3 "But I don't need to."
ME "I don't care!"

At this point I'm really cranky, she is upset, I'm yelling as I walk to the car that I'm leaving without her, she's screaming that she doesn't want to be left behind, and THEN she does what she's told. Considering how often this scenario repeats itself during a typical day [sometimes it repeats in the same hour], I'm probably not dealing with it in the best way.

It's so frustrating, and as I took deep breaths trying to cool down after this scenario repeated for the third time today it suddenly occurred to me: just as Miss 3 disobeys me when she wants to exercise her will, I disobey the Lord when I choose to exercise my will, and not submit to His plan for my life. I do this a lot... disobey God, that is.

The first thing I did when I realised this was pray, and ask for forgiveness. The next thing I did was obey something He'd asked me to do a week ago. Tomorrow I'm going to remember my disobedience when I have to deal with Miss 3's. Hopefully this new perspective on the situation will help me deal with her and I will be able to teach her obedience, rather than react to her disobedience.