Yielding

Motherhood, I'm learning, is similar if you are human or a goat, at least in a few ways. The other morning I was leaving the goat pasture, walking with the mama goats and the baby goats when I noticed it. Snow White (one of our baby goats) was walking with her mama, Super Trooper. And over and over and over, Snow White would get right in front of Super Trooper and slow to a crawl. And Super Trooper taught me something. She didn't place her hoof on her little girls head and steer her out of her path, or butt her with her head. She just slowed down. She yielded. Webster has lots of definitions for yielding. Here are two of them:

To give up or surrender (oneself)

To give up or over; relinquish or resign

I have to admit that yielding is not my natural tendency. Score one for Super Trooper. I have one child in particular that seems to always step right out in front of me and slow to her snail's pace.  And I can't say that I yield to her. My hand usually comes up, not aggressively or rudely, and touches her head and steers her only one foot to the left or right so that I can pass. I've never given it much thought until I witnessed my mama goat in action. When she surrendered her "right" to getting where she was going, my first instinct is to think that she was giving up the choice food that awaited her. But as I watched her, she looked gentle and patient, not worried about what she was losing. Then I wondered what I look like in that same situation. Then it hit me. That was one of those backward commands that Jesus gave us.

The first shall be last and the last shall be first. Matthew 20:16

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.      Phil 2:3-4 

Jesus asks us to put others before ourselves, not to devalue ourselves but to build others up. It is what He did, right? And it slows us down. If we try to forget about what we are busy with and consider others, it will go well with us. That is one way we serve our Master. He showed us how to do this over, and over, and over. Probably not because He was trying to formulate it in his head...which is why I tend to say the same thing in many different ways, but because He knew we would need to hear it again, and again, and again. He did it for us. And my job is to show Jesus to my kids. And when they cut me off when I am walking to the not-so-important things in my life, I should yield to them. Not worry that I will get to my cooking 10 seconds later, or that the wash can't wait a minute longer. I should slow down and learn to follow them. I should be thankful in the moment that I have a child to follow and learn from. I want to yield to my children and relinquish my rights for theirs. I want to teach them how to fall in behind the leader of a line. A real line or a figurative one in life.

Lord, help me be more like Super Trooper who loves her little girl well and yields to her.