Tools

On the latest addition of learning from my preschooler: tools.

For whatever reason, my preschooler LOVES to play with our handheld vacuum cleaner. He loves toting around the house sweeping up stray crumbs and dirt and dog hair (which the dog doesn’t appreciate when the hair is still attached to him!). One morning, the sweeper turned toy suddenly stopped working. As much as my son slammed the button, it just won’t suck. No worries! My son knew just what to do! He ran to the basement and returned with his toy hammer. “I’ll fix it, momma!”, he declared and started pounding the pour machine!

It took a good amount of self-control not to laugh at his efforts. My adult brain could easily assess what the problem was; I knew a hammer wasn’t going to fix a dead battery. Yet in his childhood innocence, he was confident that this was the right tool for the job. He’d just learned how to use it to pound plastic nails into his tool bench and had seen daddy use a hammer to fix the panel in the bathroom, so of course it would fix this too!

I wonder how often we approach life’s problems with the tools of a child. Maybe we learned in childhood that the way to get our needs met was to be loud and demanding, so we struggle when our verbal pounding doesn’t get us what we hoped. Or maybe we learned to survive by not having needs at all; maybe the tool we were given is people please; always put others first and they’ll never be mad at us. Except maybe now we’re feeling unfulfilled or unmet because our needs have been ignored for so long. Or maybe we hold the tool of addiction: if we can just get that next fix or have one more drink or go on one more shopping spree, that whole in our heart will be filled. Or maybe it’s the tool of self-protection; if we can just flee from relationship, hurt or cut of them before they hurt us, we’ll be okay.

Today, I challenge you to take inventory of your emotional and spiritual toolbox. What tools in there no longer serve the purpose they once did? What’s no longer beneficial? What once useful hammer is now trying to fill the role of an electric cord? And what are the tools are missing? What are the things that you still need to be successful, happy, and satisfied with yourself, your relationships, your life?

Once you’ve assessed your resources, I encourage you to reach out to your community and share both the tools that you have and those that you’re lacking. Reach out to a trusted friend or family, a pastor, someone in your small group or club, or even to a counselor (I know of a few great ones! =)) and ask for the help that you need. Stop trying to fix a dead battery with a hammer; find someone who can teach you the tools that you need.