Why Good Parents Make Their Children Cry

I heard screams coming from the shower.  When I went to investigate, there stood a child with a large amount of shampoo in her hair, crying that shampoo went in her eyes and now it burned.  I told her the best thing to do, which would make her feel better faster than anything else, is to put her head under the shower and let it rinse all of the shampoo off her head and out of her eyes.  She hates getting water on her face and refused.  I raised my voice - she refused and continued to cry.  I yelled - she refused and continued to cry.  So I took her screaming, wiggling body and shoved it under the running shower until all of the shampoo was out of her hair and off of her face.  As she stood wrapped in her towel after the experience she looked at me with scorn and said, "A good parent wouldn't make her child cry!"


Good parents do things all the time that make their kids cry.  Get them immunized.  Refuse to buy them toys they don't need or can't afford.  Reprimand them for bad choices in their behavior.  A parent's job is to see the big picture and do what is best for the child, even when it causes temporary pain and sorrow in the child.

Our Heavenly Father sees the big picture much better than we do.  I wonder how many times I have stood before him crying out for help and the answer I got was painful and made me cry.  How many times have I figuratively screamed in the shower and refused his gentle advice to put my head in the shower - only to have myself bodily pushed under the falling water.

At those times, when we are sputtering in the midst of hard times and sorrows, and we are tempted to yell at God, "A good parent wouldn't make his children cry!", we need to remember that he sees the big picture.  Bad things things happen because it gives us the chance to learn.  Whether we cry and become bitter, or consider the good that could come of each bad experience is up to us.

God lets bad things happen to us because he loves us.

ALB