I got to visit with my daughter and her family last week in CO and loved having those days to spend with my nearly-two-year-old grandson. My daughter has been trying to get him to give up his pacifier, or "bi-bi" as he calls it, but hasn't had much luck. She has told him he can have it for naptime and for nighttime but he often wants it during the day. It's interesting to watch because this child does not lack for anything to play with! He's got plenty of toys, two dogs, and lots of videos to watch. He goes to daycare and has friends to play with. He loves to play outside with his basketball hoop and his big wheel.
But for some reason, he just has to have that pacifier. And if you tell him no, you are liable to have a fight on your hands unless you have something else to distract him with. It seems that the very idea that he can't have it makes it all the more attractive to him!
At this point in our story, God has planted a garden and placed man in it to work and take care of it. In verses 16 and 17, God gives the man one command, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die."
Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Eat of any tree in the garden, except this one. I don't know how many trees there were in the garden but we can probably assume there were plenty of choices. So the man shouldn't have had any reason to go anywhere near the tree. If you are new to Bible study, you don't know the rest of the story yet. And if you've read it before, just pretend you don't know what will happen in a few short verses. Because what I want to focus on here is our tendency to get stuck on the idea of the things we can't have.
It's why God's ways seem so restrictive to some people. Rather than seeing God's limitations as protection for us, some people choose to see them as punishment for a crime we haven't committed yet. Rather than focusing on the bounty that God has blessed us with, some of us choose to pout over the one thing He asks us to leave alone.
Let me encourage you today to change your focus. Look at the blessings God has given you and be grateful. When we focus on these things, we won't have time to notice the things we think we are doing without. Then maybe that "bi-bi" won't be so attractive to us after all.
- Holly Barrett
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