This is a picture of Bryce getting totally into his Madden '05 PS2 game. A little while back he emptied his plastic bank, and with the help of his sister counted his money to find out that he had $20. He immediately wanted to make a trip to Wal-Mart to see if that was enough for the new Madden '07 game. We didn't go immediately, but sometime in the next few days we did make it there, but only to Bryce's disappointment as he found out the game was $30. I tried to encourage him that he could try to earn $10 by doing some extra jobs (plus reminded him he had a few teeth about to come out too...) He was pretty much not to be consoled at that point, but over the next week or so, he tried looking for wherever he might be able to get some cash. He did do some extra jobs (like cleaning up the patio and the flower beds for me, which I hate - pulling out all the dead leaves, etc), so I told him I'd give him a couple $ for it (especially since he did it first just to surprise me - his sister's suggestion, and they both worked on it - then after enjoyed my excitement decided to throw in that if I wanted to pay them some money, they'd be ok with that...) The final $1 came when Bryce punched out his tooth...you can see the earlier post about that if you haven't already...
But during the course of the next couple days, his school lessons were talking about money, and stewardship, and the principle of giving some of your money to God, saving some, and having some to spend. He got very quiet and seemed upset, so I asked him what was wrong. He said he felt like maybe God didn't want him to spend ALL his money on the Madden game, but he REALLY wanted it!! I told him to just pray about it...I said God could let him know what he should do. He replied that he didn't really want to pray about it...because he thought God would tell him he should give all his money to church. I assured him that God doesn't expect us to give all our money (necessarily, though sometimes he does tell us to) so not to be worried, just to pray about it, and who knows, maybe if he was obedient God would allow him to get the game some other way, and not end up spending all his money to do it. He wasn't thrilled with the thought, but since then has not brought up buying the game and has been content to play with what he has. I just asked him again if he prayed about it anymore and he said no. He doesn't want to ask 'cuz he thinks he won't like the answer - gotta love the honesty! (I really would love for him to pray about it, and then be able to give him that for his birthday to show a tangible way of God honoring his obedience.)
While I don't enjoy my children's discomfort, in this case I kind of am, because I am getting to see him wrestle with listening to God and responding rightly. That's really cool at such a young age. I'd rather have him wrestle over obedience in these super-small things and save us all the agony of learning it later when the issues are so much bigger. I'm praying he gets it this early in life!!
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