My daughter recently turned a year old. It’s been amazing to watch how much she’s developed over the last year, but it hasn’t come without its share of struggles and frustrations. Her most recent wonder—pitching a fit. Boy, has she learned how to pitch a fit.

My daughter is already an extremely independent young girl. She’s also extremely stubborn, and the combination of the two can result in quite the meltdowns. She was playing with the baby wipes container the other day and couldn’t figure out how to get it open. All you have to do is push the button by the lid, and it flips open. Simple. She did it a couple of times by accident but couldn’t figure out how the contraption worked. My wife and I could tell she was getting frustrated because she began shaking the container. To help her out, my wife tried to grab the container to show her how to open it.

Big mistake. She got the most upset face she could muster and let out a banshee-like wail. Give her the container back and she's fine. Take it from her again, another meltdown. It’s hard to get her to understand that sometimes she needs to trust us to show her the correct way. The problem is, she’s one. You can’t reason with a one-year-old. It doesn’t matter how strong your logic is. She won’t listen.

It’s hard to look at something like that from a father’s perspective. It’s frustrating, Knowing how to help someone understand. Knowing a better way to do things. Trying to show the way. But ultimately, it fails.

It’s frustrating, but I have to be patient. Eventually, she will get there. She will understand me better. She’ll (hopefully) listen to my guidance and learn to trust me to lead her in the right direction.

And then I think about God. And how this same scene plays out between Him and me.

I’m independent and stubborn. I don’t want to listen. I want to figure things out my own way. I want to do things my way. And whenever God tries to take over and show me how to do things the best way possible, I scream and pitch a fit because I’m too stubborn to listen.

Eventually, I come around. I grow up, and I understand better. I grow closer to God and see more wisdom in the way he does things.

It’s funny to think how often we think we are smarter than the originator of knowledge. Our independence, stubbornness, pride. Call it whatever you want. It gets in the way of our ability to learn how to live life to the fullest. And in the meantime, God waits patiently for us to come around.

Learning comes with trust. Trust comes through relationship. And that relationship must develop through time in order to make it all to happen. We have to learn to trust our Father, who knows best of all.