I Gave My Kids the Gift of Ignoring Me

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

James 1:7

It was a Christmas my kids would remember!

They asked Santa for some items that came with a pretty hefty price tag. It really made me miss the days of fisher-price trucks and hot wheels. With the help of Black Friday and a few more before-Christmas sales, we got them the items on their wishlist. This included a computer for each and the new Xbox One.

We were excited to watch them open their gifts.

They immediately jumped up and ran to give us the biggest hugs. They couldn’t stop thanking us for being so giving. They were so grateful because they understood that we listened to them and must have sacrificed to be able to afford those items among the other presents. It also brought us so much joy to watch them begin to enjoy each one.

But something happened next I was not anticipating.

In days, weeks, then months after Christmas we began to see our sons less and less. Each one immersed in their new electronics and video games. I saw how they were consumed with their gifts they began to ignore the giver. Frankly, I was a little disappointed. I would ask them to play board games but they were preoccupied with leveling up. I wanted to bake and cook with them as we had before, but they would ask me to just them know when dinner was ready so they could come to enjoy the feast. I realized that although the gratefulness was there in the beginning they lost sight of the giver when they became consumed with the gift. 

I can’t sit here and say this just happened to my kids one Christmas.

I realized this seems to happen to me all the time. How many good and wonderful gifts am I given by my heavenly Father to just become preoccupied with each one and forget to take time with the Giver? I even fall into worship mode and adore the creation more than the Creator. I see how many times I am consumed with being a good mom, with the needs of my children, with making sure I am doing it all right…and forget that God was the one Who gave them to me and will give me insight into everything I need to know about raising them. 

How many times have I acknowledged and praised God for a talent or gift given to me by the Lord but then turned it into an idol, taking place in my heart where God should be? I become prideful when I get the “Teacher of the Year” award. I spend all my hours and days working on the music for our Christmas program and tell God, He will just have to wait another day to talk to me…I’m too busy using the skills and abilities He’s given me. 

I fall trap to making a god out of the gift.

I replace gratefulness with distraction.

I excuse ignoring the Giver for attaining to be productive with the present.

My focus fixates on the satisfaction of my needs being met and in time my thankfulness becomes a blurry memory. 

I love seeing my boys have fun with all the things their Dad and I buy for them. After laying some ground rules with time on electronics and still spending quality time with their family, our home environment improved for the better. And after my reminder of all the time I spend focused on my gifts instead of the time focused on the Giver, my “spiritual environment” also improved for the better. 

Now, off to let my son know he went over his time on video games and dole out some consequences. And in case you are wondering, yes…my life is always this much fun!