J.'s Angry Birds Obsession

J. recently began to love the game Angry Birds just a little bit too much for our comfort level.  Those of you who are my Facebook friends, you have seen my status updates!  He was only allowed to play on the weekends, but during the week it became all that he talked about.  He strategized moves, discussed the roles of the various birds, and even drew depictions of the different levels on his dry erase easel.  As a former teacher, I have always been very wary of video games as I have seen them sap the creativity out of my students.  However, I do believe all things can be good in moderation, so we downloaded the game. He was thrilled!  Over the last two weeks he has played it every chance he was allowed to.  Unfortunately the obsession we saw that he had to play it, coupled with some instances of bad behavior led us to delete the game today.

The hysterics that ensued were both a little comical and sad to watch.  At first he started crying just a little, but as the reality set in that the game was not just on temporary sabbatical but gone for good, he began to wail.  Wailing was followed by begging, and after begging the threats ensued.  He told us, "I will never do anything else ever again!", then "You're hurting my heart!" and finally,  "I am never doing anything for YOU ever again!" More sobbing followed when there was no promise of his game being returned.

Watching J. deal with the loss of his beloved game began to remind me of how we can respond sometimes when God either removes something from our lives that is not good, or presses us to give it up ourselves.  After all He is our father and we are His children.  If He determines that something is unhealthy for us or that we are headed down the wrong path, it shouldn't surprise us when He disciplines us.  He does that out of love.  But just like my sweet J., we don't always see it that way; at least not at first.  Sometimes we respond to God's discipline by kicking and screaming.  But when we look back in retrospect, we can see why He stepped in when He did.

 I like the way this version of the bible describes how God disciplines His children: 

 "So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God." (Hebrews 12:5-11 THE MESSAGE)

 I hope someday J. will understand that we took the game away from him because we love him.  While his happiness is important to us, it is not the only thing we are striving for in raising him. We hope to teach him qualities of good character, patience, compassion, and submission, among other things.  God loves us even more and our happiness is not His main objective.  His main objective is to transform us into His likeness.  And He does this sometimes by taking things away.  Jesus says, "...and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." (John 15:2 NASB). Pruning means cutting off and taking away, so that a plant can grow healthily.  We are just like plants.  We need to let Him prune us so that we can grow strong in our faith and develop all the qualities in ourselves that we see in Him.