Yesterday’s Interests

Yesterday’s Interests

What did you receive for Christmas this year? We’re only a handful of days into the new year, but chances are a majority of your Christmas presents are already being unused or ignored. It happens every year. Something you wanted so badly winds up being boring way before you thought it would be. Even your all-time most-loved, well-used toys and gifts eventually lose their shine. They break. You outgrow them. And soon your favorite gifts are discarded.

Ask some adults what their favorite toys, videos, music, video games, or hobbies were when they were younger. You’ll get some fun answers. Occasionally, you’ll find someone who discovered a lifelong passion from that time in his or her life. But more often you’ll get stories of nearly forgotten toys. Disney’s Toy Story movies show this. The plots often center on the toys’ desire to be played with versus an aging child who’s discovering new interests. First Corinthians 13 explains this natural part of growing up. The writer, Paul, points out that when we mature, we naturally think, talk, and play less like children. “When I was a child,” Paul writes in verse 11, “I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” It’s not that being young is bad. But as we mature in our love for God, his Word, and each other, we’ll naturally see the world in a different way, and that change will impact how we live.

So next time you find yourself less interested in a toy or game you used to love, think about this passage. When we make God most important in our lives, the joy we find in other things will be replaced by the joy and love we feel for him and others!

Daddy-Daughter Time

Daughters, make some guesses about what your dad’s favorite gifts, toys, and games were when he was your age. Were you right? Which things still interest him? Now share with him some of the things that used to be your favorites but aren’t anymore. Any recent Christmas gifts on that list?

Pray together and encourage each other in gaining clarity to let go of things that aren’t as important as your relationship with God and others.

What’s The Word?

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.   1 Corinthians 13:11-12