Moments with Myles: Homework & God

If you keep up with me on facebook you’re used to the quips I write taken
 from my six year old son, Myles.

When Myles grows up he wants to be a “joke teller” a.k.a. comedian.  Here’s a moment with Myles:

I was exhausted on Monday, so I retired to the bedroom where my chocoloate candies from Valentine’s were awaiting my attention. My hubby was in the kitchen making him and my daughter some supper. Everything recorded is from what I heard happening in the kitchen. Ahem…

The oven door must have slipped from my hubby’s hand because the loud bang echoed into the bedroom.

“Myles, come and do your homework, Bud.”

I heard the TV silence. Myles had paused it. He pauses it for everything. To get a snack. To go to the bathroom. Heaven forbid he misses a second of Phineas and Ferb, Beyblade or MAD TV (the cartoon).

“Myles–” Tim calls out.

“Ma’am, yes, Ma’am,” Myles hollers in military style,and then I hear giggling.” Apparently, emasculating another man in playful fun starts at an early age.

I hear the chair squawk across the floor as Myles pulls it out and then papers rustle. “Just my spelling test, Dad,” Myles says, and it’s quiet a few moments before I hear the oven timer beeping.
,
I hear Tim close the oven doors again and say, “What are you doing, Myles?”

“My spelling test.”

“How are you doing the spelling test if you can see the words?” A pan rattles on the range. A few seconds pass.

“Why don’t you just let me worry about that, Dad,” Myles replies in an “I got this tone.”

“Myles, stop cheating! Give me a second and I’ll help you.”

I hear the humph, “I’ll be done all by myself by then.”

I laughed, but it struck me that we’re a lot like Myles. We want to hurry through the practice tests, learning nothing or skip them totally. We don’t want to wait on God to come and help us because we think the job can be done faster without Him. And when the real test comes, not the practice test…we can’t pass.

Patience isn’t easy for a six year old. It isn’t easy for a thirty five year old either. Don’t rush through the practice. Learn all you can because the real test will come. It could be a pop quiz! Be ready.

Let’s also thank God that when we do miss practice tests or rush through them, and flunk, He gives the test over and over again. But hey, let’s just learn it and move on. I’m ready to work on something new. I’m tired of taking the same old test I ought to know over again.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.” Exodus 16:4

“But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.” 1 Thessalonians 2:4

Have you had to take the same test over and over? What are you practicing for now?