Because God never straightjacketed me

Today my son fell asleep on the way to Costco from the St. Charles Children's Heritage Festival.
You know, an hour before his actual nap time and for a whole stinkin' 15 minutes.
So I knew I was in for it.
We did our thing at Costco, then moved onto the next errand.
My son was hitting and throwing and screaming in the next store. Which is extremely outside his nature, but he was ready to go home and go to sleep.
In any case a thought occurred to me.
probably two seconds after I got the judging stare from the fitting room clerk.

Why is it unacceptable to muzzle and straightjacket my child?
In that singular moment I was sure that would fix all my problems.
First of all lets clear up that I would never ever dream of doing that.
Except that I did, sort of have the idea pop in my head.
Through that, random thought God showed me a parallel.

There are so many times as my parent God has wanted to straight jacket me so I wouldn't take that next step into sin.
SO many times he has wanted to muzzle me and stop me from hurting a feeling, starting an argument or destroying a relationship with my mouth.
Yet he doesn't do those things.

He lets me mess up and helps put me back together again.
Or he reminds me of his love, his word, or my story.
So I take a step back, and reflect on how that choice or those words will be received.
But the one I was most encouraged with was the last one he showed me.
That was, allowing some one to come in and influence me for the better.
To me that is the perfect picture of my role as a mother to my son. That God set me here on this earth to be that person in D's life.
To step in and influence him, through my actions, words and sometimes discipline.
You see wanting to stop my son from making mistakes is ok. (although a straightjacket and a muzzle isn't ok)
Really though, God has called me to step in,re-direct and guide him away from those mistakes. Today his behavior could have been avoided by not having him out at nap time. But really it showed me a smidgen of how deep the Father's love is for us.