Seth sat with his feet submerged in hot bubbling water in a tiny stainless steel tub. “This is kind of cool,” he said, his voice shaking but his smile spread from ear to ear. We were in the Podiatrist’s office for the first time. Months ago he came to me complaining of a bump on his heel and at the time I thought it was a corn. I gave him medicine to treat the corn and after a few weeks I thought it’d gone away because he wasn’t reminding me to apply the medicine.
Fast forward a few months later and we have an appalling outbreak of planter’s warts on his heel! I’d never seen anything more grotesque! When I saw the cluster of bumps and little black dots it took everything in me not to rush him to the emergency room. How could I not have seen this forming on my little baby? After some research and talking to others I quickly realized what they were and made him an appointment.
After the ‘hot tub’ foot wash it was our turn to see the foot doctor. He examined Seth’s reflexes, etc, determining he was healthy and normal in all areas except for the outbreak of warts. Then he began to discuss the 3 options for getting rid of the mess. 1.) Lazar treatment – upon explaining that this would hurt the equivalent of a rubber band popping the skin Seth began to giggle. I didn’t notice this as out of the ordinary for he tends to be a very happy kid. Option 2) is a new treatment in pill form. Takes longer but is 80% effective in kids and on to Option 3) grafting the planter wart virus from one of the active warts and implanting it into the muscle of the foot so the body would recognize the disease and then fight it off (similar to the concept of a flu or allergy shot). Option 3 is most effective. Option 3 requires a few shots)…
Seth’s hands dug into the arms of his chair and his giggling became hysterical laughter. “I pick #2! #2, yep, that’s my pick! Got it? #2?” He made sure we knew he wanted the ‘easy way out’. I was personally opting for Option #1, not as scary as #3 but seemed a quicker bet to recovery. I tried to persuade him but he kept giggling and repeating, “Nope, #2. That’s it, we’re done here.” The doctor and I secretly agreed that we’d try the pill for a month and after that time if I wasn’t happy with the results we’d consider Option #1.
After reviewing today and thinking about the Focus I gave this morning on Christ’s crucifixion and Love is in the Sacrifice at the Cornerstone Bible study I realized the theme for today: Are we taking the ‘easy way out’ and what are our motives for choosing the ‘easier’ option? Nine times out of ten I’d bet the answer is FEAR.
My son is about to be 9 years old…he doesn’t have the reasoning skills to understand the other options would offer a quicker release from the disease and most likely a better outcome/result in the long run. As his parent I gave in to his need to go ‘easy’ because I wasn’t going to force him to face his fear. It’s something he’ll have to learn to figure out.
I’m sure God feels the same way with us. He can’t force us to face our fears and trust in Him, even though He’s given us all the options, laid out the details and proof that other, possibly harder, options offer a better result. Most often than not we are just downright STUBBORN.
🙂 but you can learn from Seth…at least laugh at yourself while you’re being stubborn.
Blessings
Shannon