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The Manny, the Truth, and the chocolate Milk.



Tonight we got home from church and Manny, my 7 year old son was a bit hungry. He ate some of the leftovers from dinner and asked me for chocolate milk. Being tired and in the middle of packing lunches I did what any good mom would do, I gave him a bottle of chocolate milk. The ones I pack in his lunchbox instead of making him some. It was most convenient at this moment, not necessarily lazy.

Almost immediately he was in the kitchen asking me to open it for him. Kind of bothered he was interrupting my flow again, I said "No, open it like you open it at school". To which he replied: "I don't, I get Sean to do it." Now I wasn't bothered at his interruption at all anymore, I was bothered by his lack of effort and finding out he hasn't been opening his own milk.  The conversation that followed though, thankfully is full of the type of Gold moms dream of.

"Manny, how old is Sean?"
- 7
"What grade is he in?"
-2nd
"How many arms and hands does he have?"
-2 mom. Why?

"Because Manny, you're 7, in second grade and have 2 hands too. So what makes you and Sean so different?"

He smiled and laughed, and said "Ok mom".

Lately our saying has been that "practice makes great", (not perfect because perfection is found in Christ alone), so I asked him, who's practicing? He replies : Sean. So who's becoming great? And immediately he said Sean.

Exactly!!! My son, unless you practice opening this bottle you will never become great at it. And then he tells me it's hard.

And it was such a great time to bring up Philippians 4:13 which he knows by heart::: "I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength".

To which this conversation followed :::
Me: what things?
Manny::: ALL things
Me: only easy things?
Manny: no, all things
Me: does it say all things in life will be easy?
Manny: no it says we can do All things
Me::: so all things include hard things right?
Manny::: yes mom!!!

And it was in that perfect moment that I handed over the bottle to him and he said it out loud to himself: I can do all things.... and he took of the wrapper, twisted and turned and ripped through the plastic seal and the bottle was open! I reminded him, life and everything about it was gonna be hard. School, friends ,people, work, family, bills, etc... etc... but that it doesn't mean we give up at the thought of it being hard. We try, we fail. We practice, we keep trying and we get great. Because we know that God's word is truth and that if we are in Christ, we can do ALL things through Christ.

My boy became a champion tonight. He was empowered. He took up God's truth and mastered the bottle of chocolate milk. And in the kitchen tonight we had a revelation.

Tonight,  I don't know what your bottle of chocolate milk is. And I don't know if you're like Manny who thinks it's just too difficult for you but you have no problem watching people just like you actually succeed at it. I don't know if you know this truth or if it's simply a memory verse that makes you "feel" good. But I do know that His word is true. That it's in His truth, He wants us to live.

I encourage you tonight to take.the chocolate milk and stop thinking it's too difficult or impossible for you to open. I encourage you to know in Christ, He does strengthen you to do all things but you have to Try. I encourage you to stop passing it off to the next person, but to know that in His truth you can do it.
Love ♡, Meli




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