"I don't LIKE zucchini!"

Oh what a day it has been. As I sit here writing, my poor little Elli is lying asleep on the laundry room floor. She actually cried herself to sleep there. You see, we've been having a food fight. Not the Jr. High cafeteria kind (well kinda, she did throw her zucchini in the floor), but the kind that you have with 3 year olds. Elli does not like to eat many vegetables (which is SO weird because the kid used to eat EVERYTHING!). Since she would prefer to live on chicken nuggets with honey mustard, potatoes of any kind, pancakes and "treats", we have food fights on a fairly regular basis. As a mom, I want my children to eat healthy. I know that healthy eating habits are established at an early age and it's my responsibility to encourage them. So with that said, my sweet little Elli decided last night that she would not eat her zucchini. She told me over and over how she was not going to eat it-not ever. This morning when I asked if she was ready for breakfast and she said yes, I pulled out the zucchini. She cried and yelled and wallered on the floor. She did NOT eat her zucchini. Then lunch time rolled around and she said she would eat her zucchini so she could have a hamburger. Well, we got the burger and the zucchini is now laying on the floor of the kitchen, as Elli lies in the laundry room after another session of crying, screaming, and wallering. When I first saw that she had fallen asleep (cried herself to sleep), a flood of tears came to my eyes. I just thought about how sad it was that we were having this struggle, this fight over 3 teensy halves of a zucchini slice. Then God spoke to me and told me that this is what it's like when we fight with him. We kick and cry and struggle to have our own way, all to avoid something that "we don't like", and we miss out on the good stuff. He often finds us laying on the floor crying because we refuse to do what we know we need to do, but are too stubborn to do it. And if I think that I'm sad over my sweet, precious little girl lying there on the floor hungry, because of a power struggle, just imagine how sad we make Him when we choose not to obey. He brought an image to me of a woman who is dependent on drugs and how she chooses daily to do what she wants and is missing out on what is good. I don't want to miss out on what's good, all because "I don't like zucchini". What about you?