Gavin is obsessed with mints.  Starting when he was about 2 1/2 he discovered Altoids.  You know, the "curiously strong" mints.  The kind that even some full grown adults find to be almost too painful to enjoy.  Well, Gavin would chew them.  He'd pop them in his mouth and chew them up and ask for more.  Ever since then, he likes to have mints in the car.  When we would climb in to the car, he could hardly wait until I had my seat belt on so that he could ask for his mint.   Then, it turned into him asking for one on the return trip.  I would usually give in.  That is when things got crazy!  He would ask for a mint any time the car was parked and sometime when it wasn't.  So, we had to wean him from mints.  We still have some mints in the car but it is no longer a "given" anytime he is in the car.

The other day Gavin and I were in the car and he asked me for a mint.

I answered kindly, "Not today, Sweetie."

Gavin, testing out his independence and authority (which he of course has very little of but that doesn't stop him from trying), demanded, "But Mom!  I want a mint and you should give me one now!" 

I couldn't help but chuckle as I explained to him, "Gavin, even if I was going to give you a mint, that attitude and tone of voice wouldn't be the way to get it.  We aren't going to have a mint today."

"Mom?" he asked.

What, Sweetie?" I answered after taking an extra big breath.

"Please may I please have a mint?" he said with extra emphasis on the magic words he sprinkled in this time.

"I like the way you asked that time but the answer is still no." I replied.

"But, Mom!  I asked nicely!" he said through the tears and frustration.

That exchange continued for another minute or two, but this is where my mind wandered.  I started to think about how God, Our Father, must feel.  We are His children and we ask Him for stuff all the time.  We use our manners and ask nicely.  When Our Father, who really truly knows what we need and what we don't, doesn't grant our request or grant it in the time frame we had hoped, we are crushed.  We don't understand why he wouldn't just "give us a mint" or a baby, or whatever else we think would complete our lives in that moment.

While I could give Gavin a mint every single time he asked nicely, I could quite possibly have a 100 pound 4 year old with the best breath on the block, but that isn't doing him any favors.  When children look at their parents with pleading eyes, droopy lower lip, and furrowed brow, it is heartbreaking!  But knowing what is best for them in the long run makes it worthwhile.  I know God is doing the same for us. 

Being a parent is a hard job.  Even more so for God since we ask for miracles.  Gavin just asks for mints.