Lilli loves her bath. It’s an honest legacy, passed down from her Mimmie who holds her nightly bath time as wholly sacred.

Today, after her baby brother’s first nap, she asked if she could take a bath. I figured with me coming in the night before, perhaps she’d missed her bath and was longing for a make-up. I was happy to oblige.

I got the bath filled, got she and her brother stripped down and, just as they were about to get in, Emmie called from work. Telling her what we were about to do, she quickly told me no. Apparently, due to Brody’s days-long bout with the stomach bug, she’d been bathing him alone in the tub, and Lilli had been taking showers, so as not to share water with his offending body part. The bathtub had not been disinfected, so there was not going to be a bath at that moment.

Girlfriend was devastated. Not only had she not had a tub bath last night, but she hadn’t had one in several days! Her eyes welled up and, with an uncanny Scarlet O’Hara flair, she said,

Mimmie, this has NOT been a lovely day!”

Then she turned on her heel, her exposed and darling backside swinging indignantly as she stormed out of the room.

It didn’t matter to her that we’d had a great morning together, taken a nice walk, did some drawing and reading and played some iPad games. It made no difference that her Mimmie was at her complete disposal. No. She just wanted what she wanted when she wanted it.

And really, we all do.

We don’t care what the cost is or how sound a reason there may be that stands in our way. We just want it, and if we can’t have it, then the realization casts a dim light on every other good thing in our lives. Every lovely thing becomes unlovely at the drop of a hat. Or towel, as the case may be.

Chances are she wouldn’t have thought back on that bath too fondly if she found herself doubled over in the bathroom with her own offending body part in a day or two. Thankfully, that’s the way it works when we actually manage to get our way against every warning thrown at us. We don’t heed them, and, later, we realize we NEED them.

She’ll grow to appreciate those warnings at some point, like maybe when she’s my age. She’ll come to understand that the type of unlovely day she had today, was actually a dodged bullet that made the day very lovely indeed.

“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” Proverbs 12:1 ESV

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 ESV