Which somehow immediately signaled to my children that this was now a toy to play with.

I looked over from my prep work and saw them jumping on the foot pedal and slamming the lid up and down.

“Hey, please stop playing with the trash can like that! You’re going to break the trash can or one of you is going to get hurt.”

Within 5 seconds of me saying that, the howl of pain came.

My daughter’s toe got a nice little cut on it from the foot pedal on the trash can that started bleeding all over the floor.

I immediately stopped what I was doing and helped her get comfortable, cleaned up the mess, and cuddled with her after the bandaid had been put on.

My heart was filled with compassion for this cute little girl who just wanted to have fun, ignored mom’s warnings, and was now having to deal with the painful consequences.

It’s tough being 4 years old and figuring out how the world works.

And I have to imagine that our Heavenly Father feels that to an even greater degree.

He sees us downplaying commandments, skipping the small but important things, and placing our value in things that don’t last.

And yet what does He do?

“But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.” (Lamentations 3:32)

He has compassion on us in our own self-inflicted suffering.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

The post Self-inflicted struggles first appeared on Come Follow Me Study with Cali Black.