Parenting, fun, and the big picture

You're a parent, right? Even if you aren't, think with me. Parents teach their children disciplines and values when they're young. We know that they need to learn certain things to survive as adults--brush your teeth, eat your vegetables, what moral values should guide relationships, bugs will collect under that many clothes dumped on your floor, etc. We require behavior of our children that reinforces those beliefs because we want to train them, and we know they learn by doing, not just hearing. That said, our requirements and lectures often cut into our children's "fun." They can't do just anything they want, because we know adulthood is coming, and they must learn a few things now in order to be prepared.

I can see your face. Of course their "fun" is not paramount. In fact, we attend those secret New Year Eve's meetings where parents share ideas for ruining the fun of their children's lives over the next calendar year.

Jokes aside, let's agree that their fun is not our goal. We need them to have character, in order to navigate the much longer period of adulthood. If you're a parent, whether you're a Christian or not, you are training your child to be an adult, and there are things you believe he or she needs to know. Adulthood lasts a long time, and kids don't really grasp what it's like.

Now zoom with me. What if eternity is real? What if God is sitting in His vantage point, and He knows you have this big thing ahead of you, and this ENTIRE life is only preliminary to that big thing. There are things you must learn now, you must choose now, in order to be ready. Is He going to be overly concerned with your desire to have fun? with your own short-sightedness? Does He have a right, because of His vantage point and wisdom, to make claims on your time, your thinking, and your heart?

Pause for a moment.

Now think a little more. How are you reacting? Like a toddler, kicking and going hungry until 8pm? Like a teenager, whose parent is about ready to throw up her hands and kick you out? God's claims on your life are not always what you want. Does He know what's best? What's your response?