So if I've been so content and willing to stay right where God has planted me, why hasn't He moved me to a "better" place? Not like, give me patience and give it to me now, but more like this is a strange curiosity.
But what if God isn't waiting for me to be content? I should say, what if God isn't waiting for ME to be content? The other day in the car, EJ was complaining about where we live, and my husband admonished him to learn how to be content (and the ensuing conversation detailed exactly how one learns something so abstract).
And that's when the lightning hit.
What if God is waiting for my son to be content?
The first time I thought this, I almost laughed out loud. I know that God works in children's hearts, teaching them to be more like Him as they grow, but for some reason, I had never even considered that my life might be impacted by my son's spiritual growth. Crazy, I know! I am not the only one whose life will change when my life changes. Isn't it natural to think that God would want all of us to be on the same page before we start the next chapter of our lives? (How's that for a mental image? I love mixed metaphors. They're so fun to think about.) And here I've been, making sure to teach my son all the important "kid" virtues (sharing, being respectful to authority, etc.), and concentrating all the rest on myself. Shame on me for not even thinking about teaching him the "adult" virtues. He is smart/tender enough, he can learn them too!
Turns out, training your kid to serve God with his whole heart is a lot easier to communicate when you teach specifics (contentment, humility, etc) than when you generalize with "your attitude is not right--fix it or I will" while wielding your disciplinary tool of choice. Every negative action has a root heart problem that goes with it, so why not begin when they're young teaching them to uncover those root heart problems? (And get a spiritual smack across the face while you're at it for not realizing sooner that "train up a child in the way he should go" also includes helping him learn stuff most people don't learn until they are adults. I mean, wouldn't that make "the way" so much easier to "go"?)