Earlier this month we put on our first ever garage sale. As someone who is not very sentimental, I was in my element going through our house room by room and putting things into our sell pile. I was loving clearing up space in our home and making progress towards eventually getting rid of most of our things when we move to France.
One evening leading up to the sale I was going through some of Mia and Desmond’s toys. At one point Mia came over to me and started playing with one of her old toys which I had already put into the sell pile. I had a conversation with her about how she could play with the toy a little longer but then we were going to sell it. Over the next couple of days Mia repeatedly came up to me asking if we were going to sell some of her favorite toys. With each of these questions I felt a bit of sadness and guilt that we were making her part with toys that she still enjoyed and played with.
Thankfully, God brought to mind a passage from a book on parenting that I’m currently reading. In this passage the author is talking about the objectives we have for our kids. The passage goes like this, “If your objectives are anything other than ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,’ you teach your children to function in the culture on its terms. How do we do this? We pander to their desires and wishes. We teach them to find their soul’s delight in going places and doing things. We attempt to satisfy their lust for excitement. We fill their young lives with distractions from God. We give them material things and take delight in their delight in possessions. Then we hope that somewhere down the line they will see that a life worth living is found only in knowing and serving God.”
I realized that I was taking delight in Mia’s and Desmond’s delight in their toys. On a basic level, I think this is natural and it’s good to give gifts to our kids that they will enjoy. But I also realized that I was missing a golden opportunity to point them to Jesus; to communicate to them that their toys will not satisfy them. The only thing that satisfies us is God and, therefore, the only true path to joy is seeking our Creator, rather than created things. I suspect I will be having many conversations like this over the coming months as well as over the coming years. It’s a truth I regularly need to be reminded of myself. Thankfully we serve an incredibly patient and gracious God.
– Adam