“Unconditioning”

Normally I’m all for feeding children, especially when they’re hungry and crying, but my youngest son seems to think that every time he wakes up he should have a full bottle of milk. This includes power naps, waking in the middle of the night during heavy rains, and other such natural occurrences that happen repeatedly each day. Basically, I think the kid just wants to go to sleep to eat.

Just the other day upon finishing his bottle, Joshua closed his eyes in an apparent food coma and began to doze. In less than a minute our arch nemesis of tranquility, a pair of ibis birds roosting in the trees above our house, screamed out in inconsiderate delight. Joshua’s eyes popped open, his head swiveled, and he saw the empty bottle next to us. While his lungs filled with air, his body tensed, and his fists clenched in anger I knew my novice mistake would have tearful repercussions. As Michael says, “I really don’t love ibis birds.”

I read somewhere that it takes time for a baby to realize that their stomach is full. With an angry screaming child in your arms time is of the essence. How do you get a closed-minded child to see that what they think they saw is nothing close to reality? Then as suddenly as it began, the siren ceased and the tears dried. And he smiled at me. I try not to over analyze things too much, but I’m pretty sure his smile sheepishly said, “Oh yeah. I guess I already had my bottle.”

Sometimes I think we get conditioned to give immediate responses and reactions rather than to see what is truly happening. For example one summer visiting the States our older boys saw their grandfather feeding Cheeze-Its to the dog. He may have even jokingly said it was dog food. Regardless the boys are now adamant that Cheeze-Its are for dogs. At first sight of the box on the shelf they cry out “Dogfood!” We see a fraction of the story and pull out our battle gear, dig trenches, and refuse to budge. I try not to jump to conclusions but inevitably I find myself reacting to a situation much like Joshua with his empty bottle. There are times of conditioning that are certainly healthy, such as after shampooing and rinsing, but to take a quick look at something and go into a screaming fit, well… how is this beneficial? I wonder, is this how we look to God when we don’t get what we want? Or does He see us as crying out in clueless inconsideration? With Joshua we’re working on more healthy responses, reconditioning if you will. Or as Benjamin recently told us, “If you put an “un” in front of something it will take it away.” Perhaps we could all use a little more unconditioning in our own lives too.