DA BRAT

On a number of occasions, I've been reminded by my mother about the crazy things that I used to do as a child.  I am constantly hearing stories of my shenanigans and mischievous ways.  One instance in particular inspired this blog entry.  This instance goes back to kindergarten when I was at the tender age of 5.  Academically, I was at the top of my class... but my behavior was another story.  Every day I'd complete my work before the majority of the class, and after doing so I would torment and pick with the other children.  And like clockwork, everyday I found myself in timeout.  I would never fuss, cry, or pout for being there; instead, I'd continue to pick with the rest of the class even more.  Had to keep herself entertained I guess.  As a result, on a daily basis I found myself with a little note being slid into my composition notebook made out to my mother.  In retrospect, is this really unruly behavior?  I wasn't causing anyone any real harm per se, despite continuing to act silly from timeout.  Or could it be that I was merely grasping the concept early on of making lemons out of lemonade.

Some people may view the type of child that I was as a brat, which is allegedly a bad behaved child.  But more specifically, a brat as we know of is someone who whines, cries, complains, and believes the world must be coming to end if they don't get their way.  If a brat is told "no", they want to know why and will bug you until they have an answer that pleases him or her.  At times, a brat is not even satisfied with a "yes" if he or she didn't appreciate the outlets that had to be taken in order to achieve that yes.  This description is sounding a bit familiar to some of you I bet.  Could you possibly be a brat? Even at this age.

  

I could even go as far as breaking up the different versions of someone who is a brat.  There are those who are spoiled brats.  These are people who expect to be spoon fed everything and would rather not lift a finger under any circumstances.  And then there are the hard-headed brats.  These are individuals who act more stubborn than the average person, not wanting anyone to tell them anything because they think that they know it all.  Most of us can find ourselves somewhere in at least one of these round-about definitions and scenarios of a brat.  So again I ask, honestly... Are you a brat?  More specifically...

ARE YOU A BRAT TO GOD?

My last question elevates the topic and is exactly where I intend to go with this particular entry.  Do we act like little brats when it comes to God?  Whining, crying, and complaining when life doesn't go our way.  we're so quick to say, "whatever", and "I don't care", getting angry and annoyed when things in life aren't going as WE planned.  This behavior is a true disrespect to the one directing our lives, monitoring, watching over, and cleaning it all up.  The one who is purposely not allowing certain situations to work out for us because they are indeed not for us.  Like a parent desperately trying to explain to their child why he or she should not do certain things because of the harm that it'll cause, we don't listen and our parent gets frustrated.  Instead of listening, we pout, get mad, and get angry.  We never understand the truth to our parents words until sadly, we have been burned.

Human beings are hard-headed by nature.  We get above ourselves when things start to go our way and start to feel as if we can do it all on our own, slipping away from the one who made things possible for us in the first place. GOD.  Life gets good, and we get greedy or get gone.  When this begins to happen, like my kindergarten teacher, God puts us in timeout.  Timeout is not a desirable place.  It is a place that gives the illusion of trials and tribulations of all sorts that we mentally believe are too heavy for us to carry.  Most often, the trials and tribulations that are associated with God's timeout are merely minor setbacks and not life downfalls.  But to us brats, we think and act as if the world is coming to its last days and we have no where to turn.  Our prayer consist of whining, doubt, and anger... questions of "why me?", instead of "thank you", "forgive me", and "I trust you". All for problems, that if we truly thought about it, are so minuscule that we could probably pull ourselves out of it if we relaxed versus panicked.

As I used to do in my aforementioned kindergarten tale, take on timeout and make the most of it.  Live it and learn from it.  You won't be in timeout forever... God just needed to open up the eyes of the brat inside of you.  We're so quick to claim that we are at peace with ourselves when things are going great, when we have finally gotten the monkey off of our back and life seems to be in place.  However, the true testament of being at peace is being at peace during life's "timeouts".  I am not saying that you can not cry to God.  God is indeed who you can let it all out to on any given day and during any given moment... but when your heart starts questioning his doing and his path for you, that is when the brat has surfaced.  Don't you dare whine and question his timing because it's not on time with yours.  I know that it is difficult, we are impatient beings... but when you find yourself always in timeout, at some point you have to evaluate your way of thinking and living.  Even I, the 5 year old who was always in timeout in school, had to eventually realize that my ways had to change.  I was better than that, there was a better me there versus being a brat.  Ask yourself "how can I be a better me mentally, physically, and spiritually?"  That is when you'll truly find peace.

"PEACE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF CONFLICT, BUT THE PRESENCE OF GOD NO MATTER WHAT THE CONFLICT." - Anonymous