Whether it's climbing a giant block, scaling a sliding board, or building her own tower, HayJae can do it herself. She can dress herself, rinse her own hair and wash her own hands. She can open a paint bottle and crack eggs for the brownies. She can roll up the crescent rolls and serve you the gravy. And just last night, as she struggled to climb up into her daddy's oversized recliner to join me in a computer match-game, she wouldn't accept my help in getting on my lap. She knew right where to click to get to her site to play the Purple Place games.
"You are just so self-sufficient," I informed her.
"No, I am not!" Her wide eyes expressed the horror of being something she didn't want to be.
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not! I'm not self-suppichent."
"Self-suh-fish-ent!" I repeated slowly, but she didn't want to say it correctly. She didn't want anything to do with that word. "Do you know what self-sufficient means?" She shook her head.
"It means you are able to do things yourself. Like when you climbed up in my lap. You were self-sufficient because you didn't need my help." Fourth-of-July sparklers lit up her eyes. She repeated the word again and again till she'd mastered it.
"I am self-sufficient!" She proclaimed; she liked this new word.
"No you're not," her 15-year-old brother teased. "If you were self-sufficient, you could say supercallousfragilisticexpeallidocious." HayJae scrunched up her eyes and sought my help.
"Jordy, don't throw that nonsensical word in here now. I'm trying to teach her something."
"So am I. That's a big word."
"And it doesn't mean anything. It's nonsense. But self-sufficient is an important vocabulary word for a three-year-old to grasp and say. Leave her alone. I'm homeschooling!" I laughed. Our quibbling continued and later HayJae said she didn't want to learn any bad words from Jordy. She just wanted to learn good words from me.
When HayJae's parents came home, she told her mom she was self-sufficient. Her mom asked what she could do. "I can dress up myself. I can climb by myself. I can make a tower." Her mom was convinced. HayJae was self-sufficient. When she asked her mom for something to eat, her mom sent her to her dad. Her dad said, "Why do I need to get you a lunchable? I thought you were self-sufficient!" HayJae was in a quandry. I came to the rescue.
"Well, she's not self-sufficient in all things. Just some things. No one is self-sufficient in all things."
"Yes, daddy. I can't be self-sufficient in everything. Just some things." Her dad gave her the lunchable and HayJae proceeded to open it. She struggled and struggled. Her grampa offered to help. "No, I can do it." At that moment she ripped a corner open but broke the tray in the process. Grampa offered to help again. "No." She was about to cry when she looked up at me.
"Would you like me to help you?" As I opened the rest of the lunchable, HayJae said, "It got broke."
"Yes, but it won't hurt what's inside. It's still fine. Sometimes when we try to do things ourselves, we can mess things up a little. But if we let someone else help us, then everything can work out fine. It's okay if we aren't self-sufficient in everything." HayJae took the opened lunchable and began to eat, and returned to her daddy's side. "It's okay if we aren't self-sufficient in everything, daddy."
This is the way of our lives in Christ. We can do nothing in and of ourselves. Without Him we are incapable. When we trust in Him and allow Him to guide and to help us, we are able to do things we might otherwise find impossible. And when we try and we fail to meet expectations, we need only turn back to Him and receive His all-sufficient help. That is a great lesson to learn. And an expedient one to master, don't you think? selahV
[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]
Sometimes kids ask the most perplexing things. Just when you think you've got one of those questions answered you find you've only been baited for the hook on another. Such is the case of HayJae, who'll be four-years-old in a couple of weeks. 
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