Almost every time one of the brothers need assistance in the bathroom, Lorelai cries outside of the door like she’s been locked out at the gates of Heaven. Today when all was finished, I invited her in to let her see what really happens. As she leaned over the potty, her eyes widened like she’d seen a ghost and she turned tail and ran out of the bathroom yelling, “Ewww! Coco! Coco! Ewwwwww!”

It made us all laugh for a moment, but then as I sat on the couch thinking about it, I began to feel like I have had similar learning situations in my life.

Why couldn’t that strong-willed little diva just have trusted that I shut her out because it was not a place she belonged? I wasn’t keeping secrets and throwing parties, I was avoiding her the stink! And since she’s not yet two, avoiding the possibility of her getting her hands nasty. But still, she would cry and bang the door and throw fits to be somewhere she absolutely did not belong.

But haven’t I, haven’t even Tim and I together, done that in seasons of life?

Guilty.

We think we know what’s on the other side of the door. We think it’s what we need right then.

And what’s on the other side of the door may not even be dangerous or bad. Maybe what’s on the other side of the door is where we are destined to be {as in Lorelai’s case, when she gets old enough to potty-train}, but we aren’t trusting that now is not the time. Instead of waiting on the Lord to open the door, we throw a fit at the foot of it.

And let me just say this, too. You can make almost anything happen. You can push and bang and smash and medicate and sweet-talk and credit-card your way into what you really want, right? A lot of times we can find way to get around or break through the door {like how Lorelai figured out she could go through the guest bedroom and get into the bathroom through the en suite door}, only to get a good whiff of the stink within.

Why do we do that?

I don’t know the answer to that for everyone, but for today I’m reminding myself that God only asked us to knock {Matthew 7:7}. He didn’t ask us to bust through the door or find another way in. If we knock {and heck, I’m not opposed to tapping sweetly a couple of times just to make sure, right?} and the door doesn’t open, maybe it’s God’s way of saying hold on a minute. Not right now. What’s in here isn’t for you. Or you can come in later, but now is not the right time. And maybe when we sense that answer, instead of wasting time pitching a fit at the foot of the door, we stand back and look at the great things we have right now and figure out a way to make those count.

Each of us have a different journey with different doors. Let us stop trying to get in each other’s doors and the doors that don’t belong to us. Let us wait upon the Lord and walk through the spaces He has perfectly laid straight for us within His will.

Let us do ourselves a favor and avoid the stink within.

With love, Malorie