Temptation

We're a week into potty training Xander.  Every time he pees or poops in the potty, we reward him with an M&M of his choice.  It's very motivating.  Sophie gets a candy, too, because it makes it fair, and I also want to motivate her to encourage him to go.  The more people in this house cheering Xander on, the better. 

So we keep the M&M's in a little cup up in the cupboard of our bathroom.  Yesterday, when I went to get one for Xander, I noticed that about half of them had disappeared since the last time we had used them.  Sophie wanders in for her candy, and I see (on closer examination), that she has some suspicious looking brown smudges across her cheek.  Busted. 

"Sophie, did you eat the M&M's without asking Mommy?"

Sophie looks down.  "Yessss." 

"Sophie, don't you do that again, you hear?"

"Yes, Mommy."

We get dressed for church, pack into the car, and head down the road.  In the church parking lot, I'm unbuckling Sophie from the back seat when I notice she has the tell-tale smudge on her face again.

"SOPHIE!  Did you eat M&M's after I already told you not to?!" 

She starts to cry.  Scott and Xander are already half-way to the front doors of the church by now.  He hears her crying, stops, and looks back, "What's going on?  Is she ok?" 

"Well, Sophie has something to tell you about NOT obeying Mommy..." I say.  Scott turns to her. 

"Sophie...?"  She cries even louder. 

"I ... ate ... the .... M&M's .... " she gets out, between sobs.  By this time, we're almost walking in the doors, and (call me a chicken) I didn't want to have a sobbing almost-4-year-old on my hands in the church lobby.  We shush her up, get our Sunday faces on, and head into church. 

After service, lunch, and nap time, I'm puttering around getting our house picked up when I find some tissues on the bathroom counter - smeared with a suspiciously chocolaty-looking material.  Quenching my initial urge to go into def-com-five-red-nuclear-alert mode (and taking a big breath), I head to the living room to find the culprit. 

I find her reading with her daddy. 

"Sophie, what were you doing during nap time?"  A loaded question, I know.  I wanted to see if she would go straight for the truth, or decide on evasive tactics.

She looked up at me with huge eyes.  "Mommy, I opened the cabinet and saw the M&M's.  I wanted to eat them, and I put them in my mouth, but then I changed the plan.  I changed the plan!  I didn't want Mommy to be mad at me, so I spit them out in the sink. I didn't eat the M&M's, Mommy."

I have to say.  I was floored.  I am so proud of my little girl.  What more can I ask, but that when she encounters temptation, she will know that:

"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."