Muffins With My Muffin

I really enjoy cooking and baking!...Probably more baking though because I have a major sweet tooth that gets its fix when I whip up some sugary goodness.  As Livi has grown into the toddler stage, she loves to help out around the house!  Her area of expertise is helping me with “loodee” (aka laundry).  I take full advantage of allowing her to help me out, secretly hoping to pass on some of my “chores” to her at a young age before she gets the concept of allowance.  Child labor???  Heck no!...RESPONSIBILITY!  There is one thing that I would unashamedly pass onto her though: my love for creating delicious delectables in the kitchen.  So today, I recruited her assistance in making a new and ridiculously easy recipe: Pumpkin Muffins.  I pulled a chair over to the counter for the little one to get some height, and I started off by cutting the bag of cake mix open so Livi could dump that into the bowl.  I cautiously handed her the bag, and in one swift movement she emptied half the bag of the dry cake mix into the bowl AND onto the counter.  MESS!  I nervously took over emptying the rest of the bag into the bowl.  Then came the can of pumpkin.  I scooped it out of the can in little plops over the powdery spice cake, and what happens next???...Little hands right in the gooey pumpkin plops.  MESS!  So, from this point on I pretty much took over, letting Livi experience with her eyes only.  As I began to clean up and the muffins did their thing in the oven, Livi was long gone, favoring her Sing-a-ma-jigs over her controlling Mama.  Controlling Mama…I began to think.  Why didn't I just let her dump the whole bag of cake mix by herself?  Would it really have been a big deal if half the bag got all over the counter?  I could’ve just brushed whatever ended up on the counter into the bowl!  Why did I tense up when her little hands came out of the bowl with orange goo on them?  More work for me to clean up messy hands?  She was just being a curious toddler!  I continued my thought process, and I thought of the times that I made a “mess” in my life.  I thought about how that relates with my relationship with God.  There have been so many instances in the course of my life that I've made a total mess…like not just cake mix on the counter kinda mess, but like cake mix all over the entire kitchen kinda mess.  I am so thankful that in those moments when I make a mess that God doesn't react like I did with Livi today.  Yes, God is in control of every situation, but He doesn't halt the situation I’ve created and take over as I watch from the sidelines.  He lets me learn from my mistakes, and by His amazing grace forgives me and patiently loves me through it.  I SO LONG to show that to my sweet girl!  As she grows and discovers more about her world, mistakes will be made, owies will require lots of kisses, and lessons will need to be learned.  I pray that I’ll be able to show even an inkling of what God has shown to me in the midst of my messy mistakes.  In the meantime…there’s lots of baking to do!