God knows how to potty train

and he's holding back for some reason

Now, the title of this post is a little bit tongue-in-cheek. However, as motherhood has been testing my patience this past week, I’ve been asking for a lot of advice. Specifically about potty training.

My son is almost two years old, and is very interested in the toilet. He loves to throw shoes in it. He loves to flush it. He thinks it’s hilarious when I use it for its intended purpose. I bought him his own toddler potty seat, and his interest increased! He kept begging me to let him sit on it, asking to go pee. So I thought, hey, maybe he’s ready. And that would be great, because he’s also taken to stripping off his diaper and flying through my house in the nude, his slippery little body easily escaping my grasp at least once before I catch him and wrangle him back into clothes. 

If you know my son, you’d know he’s…persistent. So there’s a high likelihood of this happening several times a day, usually at the most inconvenient time. It has also resulted in potty cleanup in some inconvenient places, so, yes, I was eager to see if I could somehow miraculously potty train my son before he was two.

I tried one method for about a day before realizing I don’t want to go completely gray before I turn thirty, so I gave my aunt a call. She has potty trained twelve children (that she also birthed. so she’s kind of a superwoman) so I figured she had some advice for me. She did! She told me to wait so that it’ll be easier and less stressful, and gave me some pointers for preparing my son.

After our phone call, she texted me. “Just a reminder to ask the Lord for wisdom regarding the potty training. He has plenty of it.” 

I stared at the text for a second and laughed to myself. Of course God knows all about potty training! Why didn’t I think to ask Him? And why is He holding out on me? 

He isn’t, of course. The wisdom of potty training is seemingly ubiquitous for a new mom in 2024. Everyone has a method that works for them, and everyone is willing to share.

But there is a deeper, peace-bringing wisdom found when God is invited into the trials of our everyday lives. His Holy Spirit might not operate like a specific instruction manual, but it is available to us in every situation, yes, even potty training.

When I turn to God for my wisdom, it is an exercise in surrender. I set aside my knowledge and my ideas of what motherhood should look like. It looks a lot like letting go of control. This is more than just a therapeutic thought experiment, however. Because as a Christian, when you surrender to God and trust him with a trial you are facing, He actually changes things for you.

I started waking up looking forward to the day, despite knowing I might be correcting my son as many times as I did the day before. The new, interminable piles of laundry from potty accidents are no longer worrisome to me. I somehow have a wiser perspective— that in the grand scheme, it is a small amount of extra work for a short amount of time. The Holy Spirit is helping me rise above the limitations of my frazzled mind and frustrating circumstances, and be a peaceful person for my kids.

I know that it is the Holy Spirit because I feel more full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control! And this happened overnight. As soon as I started praying the simple prayer, requesting God’s wisdom where I was sorely lacking, I made room for my heart to be softened by the Spirit (yet again).

As I grow older and become more seasoned in my faith, the Holy Spirit rescues me from myself on a regular basis. Sometimes, like with the terrible week of potty training, it takes a little bit of extra work for me to see what God can teach me with something so mundane.

He is an incredible teacher who doesn’t waste any opportunity to grow us in righteousness, and His grace is more than enough for even the unlikeliest of obstacles.