. . .discussing the danger of worldly attachments with my son yesterday made me start contemplating a few of my own. My incessant planning and my husband’s implementation of one home improvement project after another. My need to have a spotless first floor before I can feel at peace (I’m too realistic to think I could keep the entire house clean with six kids and two pets). Secret fears of repeating the job loss my husband suffered five years ago and the consequent financial difficulties that resulted.
I’m sure we’re not the only family to struggle in this area. It is very difficult to walk that line between living in this world, but not being of this world. I often find myself asking God how He can allow us to be up to our eyeballs in a materialistic world and not expect us to become materialistic? How can my husband and I teach our children to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and strength when 99% of their time is spent hearing how this product or that will help them be better, faster, stronger, smarter, cooler, happier?
When my children were young, I surrounded them in beauty – the beauty of God, the stories of the saints, the simplicity of family life with no TV, few movies and little time spent eating out or buying things. But now, as they get older, their activities and relationships allow for more influence from “the world.” It gets more and more difficult to “fit Jesus in”when the world is so LOUD. It’s like asking them to focus on the song of a nightingale while they’re standing in the middle of a war zone.
It’s a difficult battle. But God has promised us that He is the only ammunition we need. I’m trusting that He will provide the grace necessary for them to hear that song. He will silence the noise just enough that they will hear it, and when they do, they’ll know that the clambering gong of worldly noise will never be able to satisfy them.. They will strain their ears and seek God’s grace to hear more and more of His lovely song. That’s what happened to me. By God’s grace, I heard the song. And I’ve yet to hear anything so lovely in the clanging and banging of the world. Yes, I get sidetracked, and I lose focus. But that is why I must continue to pray for His grace for our family – grace that will allow each of us to detach ourselves from this world, in preference for the beautiful song of the next.
