Sometimes we can learn from watching a 2 year old.

I just witnessed something that I see fairly regularly yet it still amazes me.  It is the fight that is in a 2 year old.  Tonight it was over vegetables.  The rule in our house is not difficult.  You don't have finish your plate if you don't want to, but if there is a treat, you do not get it unless you eat what is put on your plate. It's always been this way.

Yet, here is Caleb simply horrified that he is not with his brothers enjoying an after dinner treat.  He screamed, wailed, threw himself on the floor, followed me to another room to start it all over again, and never ate his vegetables.  He was not going to give in and I knew this from the second the tantrum started, because I know the will of this child.  Connor, on the other hand, would eventually give in but not without lots of whining.  Whereas, Cole and Caleb, are as stubborn as one of their parents, who shall remain nameless.

What amazes me even more than the fight though is the how easily he got over it.  I mean he was mad, really mad, but before I finished loading this picture on the computer, he had crawled up in my lap and gave me a hug.  After we hugged it out, there is complete restoration in our relationship.  I again was mom and not the "evil-vegetable-pushing villian" and all was right with his world.  When a 2 year old is mad, they are mad, but once they are over it, they are truly over it.  He is not currently holding a grudge or even talking about it anymore.  It's done.  He loves me the same now as he did earlier today.

At what age, do we stop just getting over it?  Watching him tonight just got me to thinking, how much easier and better would our relationships would be if when we got mad or hurt, we threw our fit and then let it go.  I'm not one to hold grudges easily, but there are definitely times I could let things go much easier.  I mean truly let it go meaning the person we were mad at is fully restored to us.  Love becomes conditional so often for us as we grow older.  However, love "keeps no record of being wronged" so maybe tonight I can learn something from my little stubborn 2 year old who loves me despite the fact that he did not get his treat.

P.S. Just in case you are wondering, Caleb is now getting ready for bed and the vegetables are still sitting on his plate on the table.