Friday, June 24, 2011

Tooth Fairy on Vacation

By Shirley Mitchell
“In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”

Psalm 5:3

As a mom, I’ll be quite open with you that I have had trouble balancing everything that I am supposed to do. It’s hard to juggle a full-time demanding job outside the home with homework, school projects, activities, chores, teaching life lessons, lessons about Christ, being a wife, daughter, sister, friend, and in Christian Ministry. I find myself many times just trying to catch the many balls in the air and trying to not let any one of them hit the ground. However, many times a ball hits the floor.

One of the many things that I haven’t been the best mom about is the tooth fairy. Now if you don’t know or don’t remember what the tooth fairy is, let me tell you. When a child loses a tooth, he places this tooth underneath his pillow. In the middle of the night, the tooth fairy takes the tooth and leaves a small amount of money in its place. The child awakens in the morning and rejoices over the big bucks under his pillow. In my house, that is usually $1.

Now I know being a late tooth fairy is not nearly as bad as things like being an hour late to your daughter’s gymnastic team pictures so the whole team has to retake the picture or your husband rushing to save the day so your daughter is not the only one who doesn’t have a kite on her school’s kite day. Yes, I’ve done both of those and many more mom blunders. But the tooth fairy is just not that important to me. So if I am tired or if it took too long to get the girls to go to bed, then there is no way that I’m staying up even later to play tooth fairy. The tooth fairy just isn’t coming tonight. The tooth fairy has been known in my house to be delayed by up to three weeks.

Now, I don’t lie to my kids. They know it’s pretend, but they like to play the game. They want to stay up late and catch the tooth fairy in action. They want to prove that it was me. When they wake up in the morning, they remember who was to come last night. Before they open their eyes, they are reaching under their pillows for that dollar bill. Disappointment and frustration fill them when their fingers feel the plastic bag and know their tooth is still there.

Now it just so happened that Victoria lost a tooth about a month after Sophia. She had seen Sophia try to catch the tooth fairy in action, text the tooth fairy to remind her, and grow weary of the tooth fairy who just would not come. She had heard Sophia complain to her father about the tooth fairy’s tardiness and her father say so seriously, “Well, you know, the tooth fairy could be on vacation.” Sophia is far too old to be fooled by that excuse and knows the game all too well so she knew her father was teasing.

When Victoria lost her tooth, she thought her sister had whipped that late tooth fairy into shape so the tooth fairy would be sure to come the first night. Of course, she was disappointed. Day after day, she looked under her pillow and no big bucks. She had had enough, and it was time that someone told the tooth fairy that she needed to do her job. So Victoria wrote the tooth fairy a note, and this is exactly how her note was written:

Dear Mommy toothfiry I’m very made because yo came late. I do not want to hear the toothfiry is on vacachen. I would like for you to be on time. Ok.

PS. I love you. Plese write back.

Write here

(with a big box)

Isn’t that precious? She was mad and she let the tooth fairy know it. She didn’t want to hear any lame excuses like the tooth fairy might be on vacation. She wanted her tooth fairy to be prompt, take her tooth, and leave the money on the very day that she lost her tooth. LOL! I got the biggest kick out of that and stuck that note in Victoria’s keepsake box.

Of course, I also had to let out a Hallelujah, because our God is never late. He is never on vacation. He never forgets to give us a gift. He is never too tired to tend to our needs. He never has more pressing things to do and will get to us when He can. He isn’t so busy setting the stage for His Son’s return and caught up in the activity in the Middle East that He isn’t tending to your issue, your situation, your heart right now.

If we think that God is ever late, we need to think again. We can’t whip God into shape and tell Him that we would like for Him to be on time. He is on time. It’s just that He chose a different time than what we would like. He chose His best timing. So maybe we need to open our ears again if we shut them because, like Victoria, we just didn’t want to hear what was keeping Him. Maybe we need to choose a different emotion than being mad and chose trust and faith. Maybe we need to not get mad and get made. Let Him make us more aware of His activity in our lives and how He is preparing us while we wait. Have faith, my dear friend, our God is coming! He is coming!

Pray with me: Oh, God, You are majestic! Your timing is perfect. You are never late. We wait for You. We wait patiently for You and in complete trust that You know best. You will take away the things we can’t use anymore and bless us with new precious things whenever You deem the time is right. We lay our requests before You and wait expectantly. It’s in the Name above all names, in Jesus’ Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.

Copyright © 2011 Christ Compels Ministry

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