Do We Need a Different Perspective?

My two year old son threw a fit the other day. Not just any fit. The mother of all fits.

He asked me for some hard candy. I broke a large piece into smaller pieces and handed it to him. He freaked out. Crying and screaming at the top of his lungs, he began kicking and shaking his hands. He was like the Tasmanian devil on speed.

“What’s wrong, little guy?” I asked him. It took him a few seconds to dial down his tantrum a few notches. “Don’t…want…candy…broken.” His quivering mouth could hardly get the words out. Tears were pouring down his flushed face. I thought to myself, Give me a break. It’s just a piece of candy! This kid – not my son – was making a huge deal out of nothing. At least I thought it was nothing.

I wonder if this is how God sees our fits. I wonder if He thinks our tantrums are sometimes petty. Don’t some of the things we kick and scream about, in the ultimate scheme of things, not matter?

I remember my wife and I throwing such a fit during our wedding preparations. The reception hall had promised to change their ageing carpet before our wedding, but failed to do so. We threw a fit because the carpet colors wouldn’t match our wedding colors. It felt like the end of the world. God, how could this happen to us?

Everyone experiences hardships. There’s the boyfriend or girlfriend who didn’t work out. The lost job. The red wine on your new carpet. The broken power tool before your weekend project. The email you shouldn’t have sent. They’re all traumatic at the time. Over time, however, you get over it.

I’m not saying God doesn’t care about small things in our life. I just wonder what He thinks of some our tantrums – especially ones that seem trivial from a larger or eternal perspective. Watching my son throw this fit, embarrassed as I was for him, actually helped me put my troubles in perspective. Am I justified in my hysteria or is God shaking his head because I threw a fit over broken candy?

Comments

[Eric S. Mueller]

My oldest son is now three, but I think back to a similar incident and thought from the time when he was about seven months. We had a routine that went on for a while that I remember. By the time we got home from church on Wednesday night, he was a little bit overdue for his regularly scheduled nightly bottle. I would start preparing his bottle as he screamed for it. I wanted to communicate with him that he was going to get the bottle as soon as I get it ready, and one evening I remember thinking to myself, is this how God sees some of our tantrums? Is He trying to tell us "Look, you're going to get what you're asking for, but there are a few things that have to happen first while I get it ready." But of course, like an infant, we lack the perspective to see any further than right now.

Having children has in a way helped me to see that God has a different perspective.

[doug t]

I've bought my 3.5 year old son FOUR train sets over the years, the last one being a real model trainset. He's bored and saw a junky trainset in the store the other day and told me, "I want to get rid of my old trains. They're no good. I want a new train."

While disgusted with my son's lack of grattitude for what he has I couldn't help but think of my own attitude toward God. Just about every negative trait I see in my kids I can easily recognize in my own relationship with God. They are little microcosms that teach us parents about ourselves.

It's amazing how much clarity I can have about my son's moronic desires then dismiss my own moronic desires or motivations as enlightened and necessary.