First B Update
January 14, 2010

Big Words for a Kid

The other night while tucking in my son, Andrew, I said, “Okay, let’s pray.” He groaned and I began praying. When I finished I asked him if he had anything to give thanks for or anything he wanted to ask God for. When he said no I asked him why he didn’t want to pray. He told me he didn’t pray much anymore because he didn’t think it made a difference.
 
Ouch, where did I drop the ball on that one? Then I remembered something I heard somewhere: our relationship with our children is the foundation for their relationship with God. The discipline, grace, protection, patience, teaching, love and time we spend on our children should be easily recognizable to them when they begin to understand God’s perfect love. So prayer doesn’t make a difference, huh? That’s the parental test I’m getting this night, with only moments left before he’s gone to sleep. While he’s snug in his bed, tired, attention waning, I must field this line drive from the mouths of babes.
 
“Andrew,” I said, “do I pay enough attention to you?”
“Yeah,” he said “when you’re not busy.”

So there it was. “When you’re not busy.” Those are big words for a kid. They’re words that say, “I come in last place to all the other things in my parents’ life. You see me when you’re not busy. I matter sometimes. I’m on my own.”

In that second I looked at my son who was about to close his eyes for the night, thinking he’s on his own at eight years old, and I wanted to cry for him. I wanted to cry because of this one simple thing I hadn’t seen happening and I knew it must be fixed. I put my arms around him and told him how much I loved him. I said I was sorry for making him feel like he came after all the busy stuff in my life and that I would work really hard to fix it. Then I asked him to forgive me and I held him until he fell asleep, praying for help.

It took a while, days, a week, maybe a little more. But I filtered through all the little things that took time in my days and found some interesting things. I thought of all the times I expected others to respond to non-urgent emails and messages as if they were earth-shattering news flashes. Maybe it’s because I respond that way. What happens when I change the expectation? What happens when I say on the phone, “I can’t talk right now. I’m hanging out with my kids”? What about when I drop one of the unfulfilling shows on TV? How about just checking my personal email twice a week? A month ago, these seemed like little things, but now I know that those little things were in the way of one of the biggest things in my life, and definitely in the way of the single biggest thing in my son’s life – his relationship with God.

God is never too busy for His children, and Andrew needs to learn that from me.

Help for Haiti

To give toward Haitian earthquake relief, donate online or specify your gift in the church offering Sunday.

The Truth Project

2010 World Outreach Partners

Peter & Nancy Halder – YFC, Bangladesh

As I read the Word, I reflect on 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives.” God wants to speak to me through His Word. My choice is to listen and obey or close the Book and ignore what God is saying. I hope I listen more than ignore. As Augustine once said, “If you believe what you like about the Gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the Gospel you believe, but yourself.”

~ Paul Zeek