There comes a moment in every child’s life they make the actual choice - the choice of the Garden of Eden. Anyone who has ever had children knows that moment when your child does something they know is wrong. Say, spilling an entire sippy-cup full of juice on the carpet while they look you straight in the eye, grinning, ignore your increasingly frantic “no”’s.

Still, that is fairly minor, as toddlers and the very young are still learning the difference between right and wrong. They stay innocent for so short a time. One minute they are cooing into your face, the next, they are beating you at your own game.

My oldest child was full of energy from the womb. Before he was born he had earned the name “Thumper” from his constant activity. In fact, my sonogram with him lasted until after office hours, as he was moving around so much the sonographer had trouble getting accurate measurements. It ended with me fainting from being on my back so long!

After he was born, he was no different. As a newborn, he fought sleep with every ounce of strength he had. He would grudgingly fall asleep with one arm straight up in the air. Wait - this is genius! He did that so when he fell asleep, his arm would drop, hit him in the face, and wake him up! So as a newborn, he found a way to keep himself up and involved in his surroundings!

He is 9 1/2 years old now. He is this amazing mixture of energy, life, and deep spirituality; his favorite book of the Bible is Revelations; he loves babies and small children. He also inherited both his parents’ stubbornness!

The thing about the Garden of Eden was obedience and trust.  Adam and Eve were asked to obey God, to trust Him. God clearly laid out for them the situation. He showed them the trees, taking special care to point out in Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. On top of that, God made it clear what the consequences would be if they took the fruit and disobeyed - death. Even Supernanny would have to agree that God covered all the bases with his children.

Yet in the end, the Devil managed to tempt them. Tired of always obeying, Adam and Eve made a choice - they chose to do what they wanted, no matter what the results. Like many disobedient children since their time, they were caught. And like many of those children, they tried to deny it, talk their way out of it, to plead ignorance.

In His loving wisdom, God listened to them, heard them, and although He loved them dearly, He did what good parents everywhere try to do - follow through. Adam and Eve disobeyed, and the punishment was death. An exit from Eden. Now they knew, and now their lives would never be same.

My nine-year-old is normally a very obedient child. Usually.

One day my three boys were repeating a phrase over and over, much to my annoyance. Okay - they were saying “Big nuts”, but there were no innuendos meant. The middle boy had just misread something and thought it said “Big nuts” when it was “Big Lots”. Anyways, not only was I tired of hearing this phrase over and over, but I began to think that I needed to stop them in case they continued this out in public, where it might be seriously misconstrued. So, I asked the children to stop, in a firm, no-nonsense voice.

I returned to the next room, where one minute later I heard the chant continued. I marched back into the living room. I instructed them to look at me straight in the eye. When I had 2 brown eyes and 4 blues riveted on me, I informed the boys that they needed to stop, now. The oldest remarked, “Oh mom! We don’t mean that kind of big nuts!”. This let me know that eldest knew very well what this phrase could mean to some people. This called for more serious action. So, I told them that if I heard anyone say “Big Nuts” one more time, they would go immediately to bed (it was already 7pm, so it wasn’t that bad!). I told them to nod their heads if they understood. Three heads went up and down.

I left the room again. My oldest started to yelp and yell, so I asked him to go outside to play. He got up and headed for the back door. As he reached the door and I reached my bedroom, I heard a faint, under-the-breath, “Big Nuts” from this child. Now the choice was mine - I was tired and not ready for a fight, but this was a deliberate insult to my motherhood.

I called the erring child back, and told him I had heard what he said. He did not deny it. I then told him that he knew what the consequences were, and he was to head straight to bed. He turned, but the Snake began to whisper to him, and he stopped on the first stair. My precious child turned around, dug his heels in, looked from his blue eyes into mine, and said, “No”.

The “No” reverberated through the air like a struck gong. This was not the “no” of a toddler exploring boundried, nor the “no” of an overtired preschooler. This was “no” in all its power. The “No” of the Garden - I will not obey.

Of course, I told him, yes, he had to obey me, that he knew what would happen when he decided to disobey. He again hesitated, listened to the Snake, and replied again, “No! I won’t go and you can’t make me.” He was right. The kid comes up to my shoulders and wears the same shoe size as me. I can no longer pick him up and take him anywhere. I could not “make” him go.

We argued a while longer. I had to take it a step further. We had family coming in the next day, making the long trip from Minnesota to Texas, where they would stay with my mother, 5 miles from us. My boys were so excited, looking forward to seeing their cousins early the next morning. So, I calmly informed my eldest that he would not be seeing his cousins the next day. His face changed, crumpling as he felt the effects of his new punishment. He begged, pleaded, yelled, tears streaming down his face, begging for me to reconsider.

Oh, how I wanted to. What parent that loves can failed to be moved by sad tears from their child? Yet I knew that real love must be firm. The boy was upset because of the punishment, not for the disobedience. Well, needless to say that it was a long night. The next morning, when everyone was more calm, we sat down and talked. We talked of obedience and disobedience. We spoke of consequences - all people face them in life. Not just children, but moms who speed and get a ticket, dads who skip work for golf and get busted, children who tell their parents, “you can’t make me”…

He understood and even accepted his punishment now. He seemed sorry for what he had done - the thing in itself, not just the results of disobeying and getting caught. My husband stayed back with the repentant boy while the other two went with me to greet the family. We did relent, and brought our eldest to join the rest of the family at 4pm. All in all, long enough to hurt.

This will not be the last time this happens. Next time I won’t have a family visit to use as leverage. It will have to be something else. We all carry the Garden in us. This is what we call “original sin”; that tendency to dig our heels in and do what we know is wrong. To ignore those promptings of the Holy Spirit, to shut out that little voice in our head that is telling us to do what is right. Sometimes we just have to go our way, darn the consequences.

We just can’t grumble when God follows through.