Baby Strength and Turbo Legs

Have you ever noticed just how strong babies are? I mean, really. For being so tiny, they can certainly wield their power well.

I realize this fact every time I try to clean the fuzzies out from between Hannah's fingers and toes. That kid gets fuzzies in places I never knew one could get fuzzies. Each time I attempt to clean out her pudgy hands, she clenches her fist into a tight little ball and I can't pry it open. Same thing with her toes. I touch her foot and she curls her toes over like a little monkey, and those things aren't about to budge. When I try and clean out her chubby little armpits in the bath, she clamps her arms to her side like her life depends on it.

And she is buff, people. She can put up quite the fight!

source

Now, you've probably figured this out already, but I find gospel comparisons in very odd places and situations. Such as while trying to clean out my kid's neck rolls, for example.

I was thinking the other day, "You know, Hannah, I'm doing this for your own good. I wish you would just trust me and stop being so stubborn. Besides, you might be strong for your little body, but I'm a lot stronger than you. I could make you do what I want, but I don't want to risk hurting you."

A little light bulb went off in my noggin shortly thereafter.

I pictured Heavenly Father saying the same thing to us. . . but not because we have hygiene issues. :)  When life is wonderful and everything is going smoothly, it's tempting to rely on our own strength and claim it as the cause of our good fortune. For example, ask yourself this-- when you're not undergoing a trial or hardship, do you take the time to have daily heart-to-heart prayers with Heavenly Father, or do you simply breeze through a quick prayer right before you doze off? And trust me, I'm just as guilty of placid prayers when the going is good as the next person. I definitely need to do better.

On the other hand, however, when life takes a turn that we don't expect (or appreciate, for that matter), it's sometimes easy to blame Heavenly Father and walk around pouting. We get scared or stubborn and we want to fight against the timeline and vision of God, forgetting that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and loves us more than we can possibly imagine.

We are, in a lot of ways, like Hannah Mae during bath-time. We think we're helping ourselves by being obstinate, when we're really only making things harder on ourselves. And another thing we sometimes don't think about {having finite minds makes this kind of hard to comprehend, after all} is that if He had a mind to, Heavenly Father could make us do whatever he wanted. He won't, of course, but the fact remains that he could.  Heavenly Father is a lot 'stronger' than us, but He would never do anything that would 'hurt' our agency.

I bear my meager testimony to you all that I know Heavenly Father knows what He's doing. He wants to guide us and help us along our path back to Him, but we need to trust Him and have faith. It's a looooong path to Godhood, and we need to learn a lot of the lessons the hard way while in this mortal state. We can't learn patience unless it is earned by having things go wrong. We can't learn what it really means to love unless it is earned. Every virtue is earned. Heavenly Father knows exactly which virtue we need to learn and when, but He can't teach us if we put up a fight, though. We need to have humble hearts and seek for His help.

Let Him help you.

Now if I can only get Hannah to let me get her fuzzies, I'll be in good shape!  :)

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This little video was taken a week ago. Something tells me that she and her papa are going to be thick as thieves.

Enjoy!