My almost 12 year old and I were discussing what we could do to better get her up and going in the mornings…

The current system is no longer working.

In order to be effective at getting her sweet self to wake up, it requires some vigorous shaking from me.

Before you judge, hear me out.

She has an alarm clock that goes off on time.

She snoozes it.

She had a manual mama wake up call, usually x2. (I know, I know…) the first one is a gentle shake and “good morning I love you, time to wake up.”

The second one is more vigorous- shaking her side, a little louder and more firm, to get her to listen…

The third time, well, I’m done with you not listening— “alright!!! Get up! You’re late!”

As these words came out of my mouth this morning instructing her, it was interesting…

I told her, “don’t just depend on the shaking.”

Wow.

And, I can so relate.

How many times do I wait until the violent shaking to turn to God to ask Him for help?

Too many to count.

This is one of my favorite things about God.

He’s not going to yell. He just does not yell or force.

But I do…

Why?

…because I don’t want her to have to walk out the consequence of really being late.

…because I don’t want to look like a bad mom because people might think I didn’t help my child…

When in actuality I’m hurting her by enabling her to not listen.

I’m not teaching her to respond to the first instruction. I’m teaching her to delay, to disobey essentially, because delayed obedience is disobedience.

God doesn’t yell.

And He doesn’t delay help, no matter what you learned in Sunday school.

You, like me, probably just needed to have listened to Him the first time He spoke.

Don’t wait for the shaking.