Rob’s Journey

1 Corinthians 13:9-12
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
NIV

One of the greatest challenges that my wife and I are facing with our kids is getting them to eat a variety of food and getting them to eat food that is healthy.  If it’s not pizza, chicken nuggets or mac and cheese, they basically will not eat it.  They will literally sit at the table for 2 hours straight and not eat the food.  Well, this past Thursday, my wife cooked dinner and prepared a somewhat balanced meal.  My son, Isaiah, sat at the table for about an hour and ate maybe 3 bites of the food.  The next day, we went to Cracker Barrel.  We ordered him grilled chicken, some carrots and apples.  Again, the plate was left practically untouched.

I can see that if this is not corrected in my son, later on in life it can pose problems for him.  First of all, it is for his bennefit that he learns to eat a variety of food and not just the few things that he likes right now.  Secondly, if he doesn’t learn to eat his vegetables now, it can pose health problems to him in the future.  So my wife and I decided to ground him from playing his WII and from any snacks.  Because we love him so much, we want to correct these habbits and teach him how to eat properly.  Well after Cracker Barrel, we went home, and gathered as a family in the living room to watch a movie.  As the movie was beginning, I went and made a bag of popcorn.  Since my son had been grounded for not eating his dinner two nights in a row, he was not able to eat any popcorn.  When he realized this, he proceeded to cry, beg, throw a fit and whine.

You see, he didn’t understand that he couldn’t eat that popcorn because I wanted to teach him.  He didn’t understand that I fear what can happen to him in the future if he doesn’t break these habbits now.  He didn’t understand that the reason that he was grounded was because Mom and Dad truly love him and are trying to do what is best for him.  He didn’t comprehend any of that.  All he knew at that moment was that the rest of the family could eat popcorn and he couldn’t.  All he knew was that I was the worst dad in all the world.  I was the meanest and the most unfair.  See, he was thinking and reasoning as a child.  I remember thinking those same thoughts about my parents.  But now as a man with my own children, I undersand why they did what they did and I understand why they said “no” when they did.  And today, I thank them for it.

In our lives, we often can not see the BIG picture that God sees.  We wonder why we go through certain experiences and we ask how God could allow certain things to happen to us.  But we only see partially and we don’t understand fully.  God sees all things and he understands what we can not.  What we must do is to hold on to faith.  Have faith that God knows what we do not and through it all, God is at work in us.  Even if we don’t understand.  Even if we don’t know the why’s for the how come’s, trust that God is in control and that in His big picture, even the most difficult moments will make sense and God will somehow use them for our good.