A few weeks back, E and I were at home coloring - one of her favorite things for us to do together. At that moment, I think we were using colored pencils, which are of short supply in our house, so we were having to share a few select colors. As I finished with one and was headed for another, she reached down and grabbed two of them, holding them up to me.
"Mama, do you want the red pencil or the blue pencil this time."
"Hmm, I think I'll take the blue one."
Handing me the red one, she replied, "No, I want the blue one so you can have the red one first."
Because I'm her mama, I honestly could not have cared less which one I ended up with and was happy for her to use the blue one if that's the one she wanted. But, since there are rare opportunities for me to navigate appropriate "peer" interactions with her, and this was a situation that - if I had been a peer and she had offered me a choice and then didn't allow me to have what I requested - might cause some tension, I opted for a little instruction in social etiquette.
"Well, E - now that wasn't very nice. You offered me a choice between the red pencil and the blue pencil, and I chose the blue pencil. So the nice thing for you to do was to give me the blue pencil because that's the one I wanted when you asked."
And without skipping a beat (or taking a breath), she responded, "Well, mommy, sometimes we don't always get what we want. And when we don't get what we want, we don't pitch a fit. We just have to 'choose' our mind to have a good attitude. Because we get to choose whether we have a good attitude or a bad attitude, and Jesus wants you to choose to have a good attitude because that makes Jesus happy when we choose to have a good attitude. So you can be happy mama. And you'll get your turn with the blue pencil in a minute."
Yep, I know. I'm in trouble.
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