My Pride As Well

What a blessing it is to be able to be ministered to even in front of my computer in this day and age. Mark Dever's post on Pride as Impatience reminds me that impatience has also become my pride's disguise often. Spending almost all my waking hours with Caleb does uncover much of my impatience (pride), especially when he keeps asking questions after questions or wants to play games in which I have no interests.

Mark shares:

I further confess as I have meditated on it, it becomes clear to me that this is not a nice, junior kind of sin (at least not in me). It is a disguise for the sin of pride, the ugliest of all sins, and the most direct rejection of God's authority and of a humble joy in His provision for me in the Gospel of Jesus Christ... My tendency is to be patient in situations I like. And that's no patience! Patience is endurance through things that challenge us, and it is rooted in humility, as surely as my impatience is rooted in pride.

Indeed, I often consider MY agenda more than I do others' and God's. My mind is preoccupied often with what interests ME and as a result I brush even my own son off. I've been given so much more than I deserve. Yes, I deserve Hell, yet I have gained Christ out of God's infinite mercy. And my son wants to play a game with me. I need to pray for a humble reception of God's authority in my life and "a humble joy in His provision for me in the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

Power of the Word

Caleb is at an age where he wants to exert strong independence yet does not have the maturity to handle his desires and emotions. There are times he would get into a frenzy or burst into crying and whining when he does not get what he wants or cannot get what he wants done. Of course, the bottom of this is he's a sinner. One day, while he threw a fit for not being able to do something he was fixed on doing, I remembered one of the Foundation Verses he'd been reciting: "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below." Exodus 20:4 I prompted him with the first part of the verse and he completed the rest in a progressively calm manner. I then explained to him that he had made that something and his desire an idol and that our happiness is found only in God. Ever since, we've been able to use this verse to explain to him the different forms of idols we make in our lives, and apply an increasing number of the 76+ verses that he has learned from the pack.

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." 2 Timothy 3:16 God's grace has enabled me to see and apply this truth even with a 3-year-old. And it is a sober reminder for myself as well that I am a sinner desperately in need of the daily sanctifying power of His Word.