a lesson in painting and patience

I am just not that great at delegating. I usually think I can do more than I really can and once I get an idea of how I want to do something it really stresses me if the plans that I envision get "messed up."

One of the projects that has been ongoing for a couple of years now has been Daniel's playhouse/jungle gym/swing set. When he was two years old some dear friends built it for him from scratch. My job was to paint the part that had unfinished wood. I really don't love to paint so it has been slooooowwwww going. Really slow.
I am finally close to being finished and yesterday I decided that I would do a little more and possibly have it finished within a few days. Then along comes Daniel--Mr. Helpful and full of enthusiasm! Um, the only problem was I wanted to do it fast (it was hot outside), and I wanted it to look good. Including little inexperienced hands holding a paintbrush dripping with blue paint was not going to help me achieve my goal.

So I thought I would let him do a couple of swipes and maybe he would get bored. Plus he was wearing a t-shirt that he insists on wearing quite often--one that I don't particularly like. I figured it could be a blessing if it got a few smudges of paint on it because then I could hide the shirt in the laundry!

He was beside himself with excitement when I handed him the paintbrush. He very carefully started with the drippy blue paint.....and he didn't get bored. In fact he was having a great time! He kept exclaiming "this is fun!" "Look how careful I am!" "This is going to look really good!" "See, I am being really careful and filling all the spots in" "This is going to look great for when my friends come over for my birthday!" (which is still about 5 months away)

Meanwhile it was taking every ounce of self control for me to not grab the brush and say, "I'm going to take over now." If it had been a different project--like a room in the house--I likely would have not let him paint since he is inexperienced and makes streaks and blobs!
Like this:

But, in this situation, it is his playhouse. Why not let him help? Why not let him learn to enjoy work and feel good about his accomplishment in the process? I knew he would be really proud of himself and that it would boost his confidence to do a "real" job like painting and have the finished product standing in his backyard.

As I struggled with trying to ignore drips of blue paint that kept ending up where they were not supposed to, I reminded myself that the playhouse is temporal. It is going to peel, decay, and get old anyway. Whereas the jungle gym is an object, Daniel is a human. This was my opportunity to do a project alongside of him and take the opportunity to begin teaching him a useful skill. It was also a chance for me to grow in patience and my encouraging skills. With every "oops" that popped out of Daniel's mouth I bit my tongue and told myself that he was trying really hard and learning often involves a mistake here and there.

Daniel was extremely focused for the duration of the project, and when his part was completed he was SO PROUD! He kept saying "look what I did!" Maybe he'll learn to love painting more than I do and when I'm an old lady he'll come and paint for me!

In the mean time if you come to our house and see drips, blobs, or smudges you'll know why :)  It was Daniel's adventure into the exciting world of painting and my daily lesson of learning to grow in patience and grace.