But I Want To

Now there's a phrase I hear plenty of with three young children. The number one situation where it arises is when they have been given a choice or deadline, not chosen well, lost an opportunity to do something, and then wail, "But I want to!" Case in point, the other night we were nearing the end of the meal and one of the kids had ceased eating and was fooling around. Several requests were made to return to eating and cease the "non-eating" behavior. The child was warned that if they didn't immediately return to the task at hand and finish what was on their plate, that they ran the risk of losing it. No change in behavior. So finally, I reached over and took the plate away. Then we had a fit on our hands. "But I want to eat!!!" My response was, if the child wanted to eat so much, why hadn't they when they had the chance? So, most parents have been there before. We're there quite often because we try to help our children make wise choices and understand consequences. This behavior is not limited to kids of course. Adults make poor choices, doing what they want and then are upset if they experience negative consequences. We've seen a couple of unfortunate examples of this in the last week or so. Tiger Woods. He wanted to and he did. Looks like he did it quite a bit. What he did is celebrated and simulated in many of our movies and television shows. I'm guessing that he also wanted to stay popular and respected. He may very well have also wanted to stay married and close to his children. He made some very poor choices and now that the plate is being taken away, he is sad. But choices have consequences. Chris Henry. The wide receiver for the Bengals died early this morning after an accident yesterday. He fell out of the back of a pickup truck. Details are still coming out but police describe it as a domestic dispute. Henry jumped into the bed of the truck as his fiancée pulled away. Fellow Bengal Ochocinco made the following tearful statement;

"He was doing everything right. He's been doing eveything right. "My grandma always says you never really question the man upstairs on decisions he makes because he never makes mistakes, but ... (holding back tears) I don't see how Chris was supposed to go already. Especially when you're on the right path."

I in NO way want to lessen the tragedy of this young man's death, but let's just realize that Mr. Henry died due to a very poor choice. I don't know all the details, and others may have made some poor choices as well that contributed, but let's face it; If you don't jump into the bed of a moving truck you don't fall out of it onto the road. I don't think it always has to do with whether "you're supposed to go." Tiger wasn't "supposed" to fall from grace and respect, Henry wasn't "supposed" to die falling onto the street. But both men chose paths that led directly to that result. Cain was warned by God that anger was about to destroy him. Yet Cain did what he wanted, killed his brother and later mourned that he was an outcast as a result. I pray for Tiger and for the family of Chris Henry. I feel bad for their plight. We have all been given opportunities and instructions by God. We have been warned that there are consequences for ignoring what He has asked us to do. There are many things we want to do, let's make sure we don't just do whatever we want, but that we do what is right and listen to God's requests and warnings. You don't want to get your plate taken away.