Dissed By an 8-Month Old

This time last week we were returning from our first beach vacation as a family of three.   We watched as our little girl Mariclaire experienced so many “firsts”.   First time putting her toes in the sand, or even seeing sand for that matter. First time seeing the ocean.  First time “swimming” in water besides a bathtub or the grandparents’ kitchen sink.   There were so many “firsts” I could not name them all, but it was so amazing to see how our little girl was really enjoying taking it all in.

Then it happened. We got our first taste of “I am too cool for you” as parents.  And it only took eight months!

Rodney and I have already learned that Mariclaire finds other people so much more interesting and fun that she does us.  But I think it may have hurt some feelings (a.k.a. mine and Rodney’s feelings) when we realized that the pool at the resort where stayed was no fun to Mariclaire unless there were other kids around.

Rodney and I could be splashing around,  making absolute fools of ourselves, but nothing made that girl smile more than the 10 year old girl who kept swimming around Mariclaire playing peek-a-boo with her. We found it quite annoying. Mariclaire found it hilarious.

Of course we loved seeing her so happy, but just to be honest, it still had us a little jealous that we weren’t cool enough to make her giggle and squeal the same way!

While in a much, much bigger way, that experience had me thinking about where I stand in my relationship with God.  Do I treat God a little bit how Mariclaire treated me and Rodney when someone “cooler” came along? Do we just realize that God is there, we need Him occasionally, but otherwise don’t make Him a priority or show Him any importance in our lives?

I think that a lot of us, myself definitely included, take the Bible super literally when it comes to some things that we pass off as “that doesn’t apply to me because that happened in the old-days”.

For example, take one of the commandments.  The 2nd Commandment tells us that we should not worship idols. So because of the word “idols” we immediately think of golden cows or statues. And because we don’t worship “idols” in that sense, we are good to go.  Of course we don’t do that.

But in looking at this commandment, what if we dug a little deeper into its meaning and how that commandment might be applicable to our lives.

Think about it this way:  What do you spend most of your time, resources, and energy on? Basically, if you had to make a list of priorities categorized by how much time or money is spent on each thing, what would be at the top of your list?

A lot of us may look at our check registers and say that most of our money goes towards food and clothes. And when it comes to our time, maybe it would be our job. And don’t get me wrong, none of those things are bad things.  But what if we prioritized based on what God asks of us?  Because no matter what, He wants to be at the top of our list.

So if God is asking for our attention, some of our time and our affection, maybe one of the ways He is asking this of us is by making Him our priority. Our #1.   And if anything else is coming before Him, even though it may not be a golden cow or wooden statue, then that commandment stands to remind us nothing should stand in the way of making God our #1.