Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Grass is Greener

This is a little old, but I'm finally getting around to writing it...

Apparently the desire for what we can't have begins young. At just 5 months old, I started noticing that keeping something away from Caleb, or telling him he couldn't play with it made him that much more interested in it. The remote control happened to be the first example of this. He would sit and stare at it (perhaps hoping I would look away and he could finally have at it), ignoring anything I did to try and distract him from it. I'm surprised that he would choose sitting and staring at it versus actually getting to play with something. I tried getting a toy remote control and apparently those are just no fun. I even found an old remote that is no longer in use and gave him that (I know, probably not a good idea); it appeased him for a while, but eventually wore out its interest too. At 7 months, he still however, is fascinated with the current remote control. What makes it different than the others? All I can figure is it happens to be the one we told him he can't have.
An entire slew of words come to mind with this, temptation, envy, covet, obedience to name a few.

Temptation is apparently something we must learn to fight from a young age. Obedience in all things is a lesson to be taught, not something we instinctually do. Caleb has much to learn. Now the temptation is the remote control, but who knows what it will be in 15 years. So much better for him, if we begin the lessons on obedience now.