And I Thought I Was Raising Him!

“Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.” ~Rabindranath Tagore

I firmly believe that God speaks to us through our children if we pay attention. I was recently trying to teach my 15 month old son about obedience. My wife and I like to consider ourselves pretty cool and lenient parents. We let our son play with pretty much anything in our home that won’t hurt him (and a few things that probably could.) One of the few things we ask him not to do is push on our full length easel mirror that my good friend Luke got for us as a wedding gift. (The only thing on our registry I really wanted.) Well our little guy likes to push it until it stands up straight and then starts to fall on him. Every time we tell him to stop he just smiles big and pushes harder. (I don’t know WHERE he gets such personality from!)

Well this particular day, instead of just telling him to stop in my “stern daddy” voice (which has never really worked) I decided to quote the ten commandments and tell him he is supposed to obey his mother and father. Then I said, “Son, we allow you to have free run of this entire home. You can have almost anything you want, and for some reason you can’t stop messing with the one thing we ask you to leave alone!”

As the words left my mouth, I heard the Spirit say to me, “This is exactly how you make God feel!” Wow! It is so true. God has created this beautiful world for us to enjoy. Animals, flowers, the ocean, the stars, the moon etc. He has given us wisdom and creativity to create wonderful things like cars, cell phones, blogsites etc. Then to top it off, He sent his son to die for our sins and provide us with the opportunity for eternal life. He has given us the keys to the kingdom if we just let go of our worldly desires that conflict with His Perfect Will. Yet we continually behave as children pressing against what we know to be wrong completely involved in whatever little vices or activities He’s asked us to give up. We don’t care how good we have it now, we just want more. We never seem to be satisfied. The grass always seems to be greener. All the while He pleads, “Son, I’ve given you everything you need and so much more, why won’t you just put down that bottle, or close that browser window? Why can’t you just be faithful to the person I saw fit to bring into your life?”

But the sad truth is we often don’t want to let it go. Even though when we look in that mirror deep down we don’t like what we see.
So what did my son teach me that day? He taught me to not think about the things my heart has been convicted to give up. Instead focus on all the blessings God has given me. Focus on what I have and what I should do instead of longing for what I don’t have or shouldn’t be doing.

1 Timothy 6:6-8
6 A godly life brings huge profits to people who are content with what they have. 7 We didn’t bring anything into the world, and we can’t take anything out of it. 8 As long as we have food and clothes, we should be satisfied.