Thought of the Day 01.09.09

My son Spencer recently found himself very badly wanting to play Nintendo Wii with the other kids at a party. Unfortunately for him, they weren’t sharing. So I encouraged them to do so and told him to be patient for his turn. At the same time, the mother of the game’s owner (a good friend of ours) came on the scene and scolded her daughter for not sharing. She was angry at her but also clearly embarrassed by the shame she had brought on the family through her selfishness.

Despite the smallness of the incident, both reactions are proper. Naturally, all parents empathize with the difficulty of training children and with the commonness of them failing. But when they are taught to share (precisely because they own something valuable) but don’t, they dishonor their parents, whose moral leadership is called into question.

What it made me ponder, however, is just how much shame God must feel when He sees us wealthy Christians so reluctantly letting other kids play with all the goodies He has given us…and taught us to share.