Jesus & A Carrot Chip

The other day my dad brought my kids some of those Purity individual ice cream cups (thanks Dad)…you know the ones…

They are like gold to my children…seriously, they absolutely love them.  So they get to have them every now then for a treat or after they eat a good meal.  Today while they ate lunch, I told them if they ate all their carrot chips they could have an ice cream cup for a treat.  And yes, I know you are not suppose to bribe your kids to eat their veggies, but hey, you do what you have to do sometimes…just don’t tell our pediatrician.

I gave them a measly 5 carrot chips and that was it.  I have mentioned before that Huddy is truly passionate about his food.  I really cannot put into words how seriously he takes his eating…the boy just loves to eat.  But unfortunately when faced with a pile of carrot chips and knowing that an ice cream cup could await him…he ended up in tears.  He threw this all out huge crying fit.

  BIG, BIG tears and lots of “it takes too long to eat the carrots”.  At this point Harper had completely finished her lunch, not one crumb of food left, Sol was almost done and Huddy had two wimpy carrot chips left to finish.  He had both carrot chips clinched in his fists…he had previously put them both in his mouth and attempted to eat them and taken them back out, so they had been slobbered on, cried on, snotted on and clinched in his fists…they were nasty and there is no way I would have eaten them.

Then Harper, who was waiting very patiently for her ice cream cup, said, “Huddy I will eat your carrot chips for you.”  I turned a quick look at her and was like, “Whhhaaattt?”  She said to me, “I will eat his carrot chips.”  Harper is a pretty good eater, but really, she was going to eat these 2 nasty, soggy carrot chips?  My immediate thought was, “No!  Hudson needs to eat these carrot chips.  They are his and he needs to eat them.  He has thrown this huge fit and there is no way I am going to let Harper bail him out of this one.  If he wants the ice cream he needs to eat those dang carrot chips.”  And then Jesus came to my mind.

He would have eaten my nasty carrot chips too.  I don’t deserve His grace and love and mercy and I am often times throwing an all out fit, but He is there to extend grace every single time.

So I let Harper eat the carrot chips.  Huddy gave her a very sincere “Thank you Harper”.  Then while they all enjoyed their ice cream cup I tried to explain is the most simplest form, how what Harper did for Huddy was similar to what Jesus did and still does for us every day.  Not sure if they ‘got it’, but I sure did…all through 2 nasty carrot chips.

And since I don’t like ending on a sappy note, I won’t.  Here is a glimpse of how we occupied our time on our drive to the Tennessee Aquarium.  Whhhaaattt…you other moms haven’t taught your kids how to get truckers to honk at them…well, you should.  Makes for at least a good hour of entertainment.  Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lx7p4PLvHM]

Happy Monday!

PS:  Our 8 Months Waiting Art Giveaway ends tomorrow night at midnight.  A sweet 8×24 canvas is up for grabs.  Scroll down to the post below to enter or CLICK HERE!  It’s a good one.