God’s Guerilla Warfare

26 December 2007 by Brian.

My wife and I have two wonderful children, both boys, ages 8 and 5.  Christmas can be a time of great joy while raising kids, but can also prove to be extremely frustrating at times, as well.  Let me explain…

First, you should know that our families are very generous to our children when it comes to Christmas giving.  They receive more toys than they know what to do with, so much, in fact, that they can’t really keep up with everything they’ve received.  Well, one of our boys received a particular LEGO toy, while the other one didn’t (he’d just used his own money within the previous week to purchase another LEGO toy of the same product line).  At the end of the day, our son who hadn’t gotten the LEGO gift was in tears because he didn’t get one and his brother did.

As you can imagine, I wanted to choke him!  However, being the kind, patient father that I am (actually, this is rather rare for me, but God gave me the grace to approach him calmly THIS time), I sat down to talk to him about just how much he’d received and to show him his own ingratitude for all the new blessings in his life.  It was a valiant attempt to re-orient his attention to the gift of Jesus, as well as to foster gratitude and joy in his heart.  I wasn’t nearly as successful as I’d hoped, but we got through it…maybe it will sink in one day.

Guerilla Warfare?  Yes, God does this sort of thing all the time.  Occasionally, I even notice and benefit from His gracious lessons!  You see, I was talking to a friend and his wife today who had experienced similar materialistic, ungrateful, and unattractive attitudes in one of their children yesterday and tonight, I was reflecting on our shared experience,  lamenting the difficulties of parenthood, when it occurred to me that my own attitude is far too often identical to that of my son.  No, I don’t sit there at the end of Christmas day disappointed with my “take”, but I daily receive blessings from the hand of God, but focus instead upon those additional blessings I covet.  Once again, God uses the child to teach the parent.

God, forgive me for my own self-centeredness and ingratitude.  I’m certain that You are often saddened by my low-minded, ugly attitudes, which are so incredibly un-Christlike.  Forgive me for failing to glorify You for your goodness, generosity, and faithfulness and for impugning your good character by my complaints.

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