Having Interests Outside Of God

[debrand]

Another post on Future Fathers. This is not the young blog owner's words but those of Dr.Coomer

If I ask the child in the Christian home what makes you happy and they say, “Basketball†then we know where their heart is. Any answer except glorifying the Lord in my life will lead me to what is controlling their life and what the spiritual issues are. Of course, the idols of the heart are selfishness in their purest form. I also ask them what do they want to accomplish in their life? When they give an answer, I ask them what that means to them. We then can find the idols of the heart because they will tell me what they are. Almost all of it deals with living for themselves or going their own way.

Most little children will not answer, Jesus-which I guess is the answer that he wants. The only child that would answer the way he wants is one who has been coached.

My oldest son would have said Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Seriously. Even as an adult, he still has a soft spot for the Turtles. I would have said books.

The problem with this man's thinking is that it makes anything that gives a person joy outside of religion is wrong. How can a person have passion in their life if they have to constantly wonder if innocent interests have become 'idols'

Many times the issue that causes a child’s heart to wander is a parent who is a dictatorial parent without right priorities or an angry parent who did not get the heart of the child. Every spiritual problem is a problem of the heart, Ephesians 6:6.The problem is the child’s heart is lost by the parent. Many times the parent does not know that until the child is ready to leave the house (18) or right after they leave the house. The parent has told the child what to do, with an angry spirit, or compromised with numerous areas as I pointed out above.

Basically, if your child doesn't follow your faith it is your fault. You were either a dictator or too soft.

[debrand]

Whoops Here is the site

futurefatherhood.blogspot.com/

[Austin]

Good lawd!

I don't know what they would say now, but it probably would have been a zillion different things over the years:

soccer

pokemon

Harry Potter - they all went to see the movie at 3:00 a.m. this morning - 3:00 a.m.! - crazee!

basketball

youth group

friends

learning to drive

buying first car

girlfriends

and the list would go on and on

But never do I think that "God" would be the first thing to pop into their minds. . . nor that of most well-adjusted children or adolescents. Mine would be my family and books. . . not necessarily always in that order :)

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Wow. If you hadn't posted the blog title, I could easily have imagined this was from the Maxwells. This sounds exactly like the sort of things they've written in various Corners over the years.

[debrand]

Maybe we can arrange a marriage between one of the Maxwells and the children of this family.

[MamaJunebug]

Poor, deluded boy. What will his head look like when he realizes that he has interests;

singing

blogging

appreciating his very pretty mother

counting his blogs (he recently passed 50)!!!

I imagine that "his head asplode." But I hope not. :roll:

[Chrystal-J]

Sounds like what I went through when I was with the Jehovah Witnesses. The ONLY interest/hobby you should have is handing out the Watch Tower magazine and going to meetings. There is nothing else. The problem with that is, people sneak around and do hobbies anyway. So, it just turns them into liars and sneaks. I never handed out Watch Towers (and was hounded for that). The leaders of the JWs want to keep people so busy, they have no time to think about the fact that the JW Organization is a fraud.

[doggie]

what is the point of life f the only point to life is praising god? god only made humans so someone would praise him? god is a fool.

[Kitten]

Hoo, boy...I wandered on and read parts of the repost of Terry Coomer's rant in the next post. After the part about his "giving up" professional baseball for his beliefs, I just HAD to look. He played one year, for the Great Falls Giants in the Pioneer League (a "rookie" league that is about 10 million miles from even making a living playing baseball - e.g., players are usually "billeted" with local families). His batting average was .100, and as a pitcher, his ERA was 4.68. For those of you who don't play, neither of those statistics are good.

Methinks that "giving up" professional baseball wasn't exactly the great religious sacrifice he'd like you to believe it was, and more a case of an egotistical little boy who was no longer getting all the attention he was used to receiving as an above-average high school athlete. Surrounded by a bunch of boys who were as good or better than he was apparently just too much, so he had to find a new avenue. Voilà! - religion! Look! I am the BEST Christian around...

He's still "playing to win at all costs" - he just changed the sport.

[SinInTheCamp]

A child giving advice on raising children. Pardon me while I laugh my ass off.

[O Latin]

If you had asked me what made me happy before I was maybe 12 or 13 I probably would have said something like eating candy or watching my favorite TV show. I don't think most kids even really understand what it means to "be happy" in a broad, non-immediate sense.

[Patsy]

He didn't ask them what was most important, he asked what made them happy. What on earth does that question tell you about whether someone is really into their religion? There are plenty of fundies who talk about the fact that you don't follow God because it makes YOU happy, you do it because that's what you do. Even if you're miserable, you still praise God, because it's right.

[clibbyjo]

MY kids would say pets, sleepovers,vacation,friends,dessert, sports and whatever fun thing they saw or did that day. My youngest says "this is the best day of my life!" about once a week, and its not because of God.(its robotics camp, or a cool lego set or a sleepover)

[MamaJunebug]

Sensible Lutherans that they were, my childhood teachers reminded us that 'every good thing comes from God.'

So if having pet dogs makes you happy, that's good: You remember that God made it possible for us to have pet dogs, and you thank Her for it, and you take good care of them, the way She wants you to take good care of all your blessings.

I should've added that to my previous post but I"m lazy. ;)

You know, this makes me think: Should I be posting here, or on the blogs we unpack? I wonder if the young man has ever thought of happiness as coming from God through earthly things. Or if he's thought that we can *be* happy because as Christians we know our futures are secure.

Although, I fear his brand of Christianity may not focus on a balance of the Law and the Gospel, but only on the Law. So many, sadly, do. OTOH it's a great way of gaining control over people.

aurghh

[Lewis]

A child giving advice on raising children. Pardon me while I laugh my ass off.

Problem is, in dynamics where the religious addictions run deep, even the parents, regardless of age, are children.

[notsocommon]

Hoo, boy...I wandered on and read parts of the repost of Terry Coomer's rant in the next post. After the part about his "giving up" professional baseball for his beliefs, I just HAD to look. He played one year, for the Great Falls Giants in the Pioneer League (a "rookie" league that is about 10 million miles from even making a living playing baseball - e.g., players are usually "billeted" with local families). His batting average was .100, and as a pitcher, his ERA was 4.68. For those of you who don't play, neither of those statistics are good.

Methinks that "giving up" professional baseball wasn't exactly the great religious sacrifice he'd like you to believe it was, and more a case of an egotistical little boy who was no longer getting all the attention he was used to receiving as an above-average high school athlete. Surrounded by a bunch of boys who were as good or better than he was apparently just too much, so he had to find a new avenue. Voilà! - religion! Look! I am the BEST Christian around...

He's still "playing to win at all costs" - he just changed the sport.

You know, Voddie gave up 'professional' football for his ministry.

[Brainsample]

You know, Voddie gave up 'professional' football for his ministry.

He doesn't say this and I certainly don't know the details, but Voddie does a lot of fast talking in one of his books when it comes to marrying young. As narcissistic as he is, it makes me wonder if he wants other people to marry young, not because it's God's ideal or because you have to start cranking out babies necessarily -- but because he himself married young. That family driven faith book almost introduces the question as to why he married young when in school and then "gave up" football when he talks about it being such a promising opportunity for him and one that he enjoyed very much. Voddie himself introduces those questions and leaves many unanswered.

A self-centered as some of these folks are, what if the religious rules they create or decide to embrace are little more than their use of religion and other people to medicate their own pain about their own choices, mistakes, and disappointments. Those who follow their advice thereafter are like analgesia for their unresolved pain as to why they believe that they failed or lost something they wanted.

The truth is that life is full of tradeoffs like this, and regular people make them all the time, and Voddie essentially preaches this. Choosing one thing precludes you from choosing another thing, because you can't always do everything in the way that you would like. When you grow up, you have to make those trade-offs that you were not faced with when you were young and your parents were working to provide opportunities for you. You have to do your own providing, and you have to find the silver lining in each thing that comes to you in life.

But you don't have to start a whole new religious movement which is used like a generic variable of X which seems to immediately satify the reasoning behind the equation of your life. Part of life's "solving for x" is not finding the proof but finding faith that the equation will finally work itself out to be solved in the end in some meaningful way.

[Brainsample]

Also, good thoughts here, too, from everyone.

I was the biggest, geekiest, most abused kid for talking about Jesus all the time at public school. I could regale you with many stories...

But even I would have never answered this man's specific question with "Jesus" when I was a kid, and religion was the key to my daily survival at home after I came home from school.

[darareaksmey]

The problem with that is, people sneak around and do hobbies anyway. So, it just turns them into liars and sneaks.

This, in spades.

When my kids were little, we used to send them up front every Sunday when the pastor would call all the kids up for a Children's Sermon. When my daughter was about three, she would always crack everyone up, because no matter what question the pastor would ask ("How was your week?" "Does anyone know what I'm holding up?" etc.) her answer was always, "GOD AND JESUS!" She was never quite sure what the question was about, but she was fairly certain she couldn't be disapproved of if she answered "GOD AND JESUS!"

[notsocommon]

This, in spades.

When my kids were little, we used to send them up front every Sunday when the pastor would call all the kids up for a Children's Sermon. When my daughter was about three, she would always crack everyone up, because no matter what question the pastor would ask ("How was your week?" "Does anyone know what I'm holding up?" etc.) her answer was always, "GOD AND JESUS!" She was never quite sure what the question was about, but she was fairly certain she couldn't be disapproved of if she answered "GOD AND JESUS!"

Mine just lifted her dress over her head or would flip herself upside down on the steps. :lol: