An unsatisfied child will wear me out and leaving me feeling more than a little bit discombobulated. Christy and I are still in the middle of raising our seven children and we’ve experienced our fair share of the exhaustion that comes with relating to an unsatisfied child. Children are ambitious little creatures. When they want something really bad they will do almost anything to get it and they’ll often do whatever it takes to manipulate a situation so that they can satisfy whatever their little desires want.
When I think of the picture of what it looks like to be really satisfied, I see a little boy snuggled up in his mom’s arms. Totally safe. Totally rested. Totally at ease. Totally peaceful. Totally joyful. Totally satisfied. But then I also see the opposite picture of an unsatisfied little boy in his mom’s arms. He’s fighting to get away from her. His arms are flailing around. He’s yelling at the top of his lungs. He’s kicking to be free from her embrace. He’s unsatisfied with his mom’s nurturing care. In his ambition he wants something other than his mom’s presence.
Maybe he got his heart set on some candy or a toy that belongs to his brother or he wants to run out in the street or play under the car that’s jacked up in the driveway. Or maybe he wants to grab a pair of scissors and play with them or maybe he really wants to go pet the front of the wood burning stove where the fire is burning out of control. Whatever this little boy wants… all he knows is that his ambition has driven him to get it all costs and in this case this little boy is willing to sacrifice all of the love and nurturing and joy and peace and satisfaction of his mom’s embrace for a moment of perceived fulfillment.
In my experience with raising kids, there comes a point where you just have to put the little boy in timeout so he can cool off and begin thinking soberly again. In fact, to try to reason with a little boy whose desires are burning out of control can lead to disaster because fires that burn out of control have a tendency to consume anything around them.
I’ve been this little boy many times throughout my life and I may struggle with this a few more times. I get my heart fixated on something I want and when my ambitious desires get fueled by the adrenaline of possibility, I can be willing to sacrifice anything including true peace and true satisfaction just so that I can achieve what my little heart has deceived me into believing will bring the satisfaction I long for. Here’s a helpful phrase for me:
“Dissatisfaction + Selfish ambition + Adrenaline addiction + Goal achievement = Dissatisfaction”.
Here’s another way of putting the phrase:
“I’m not satisfied so I follow my selfish desires and I feed them a little fuel so the fire burns brighter and I get what I wanted only to find that I’m still dissatisfied.”
Here’s the remedy that I must cling to with every ounce of my being:
“My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” – Psalm 63:5 – 8