God is better than hamburgers

Tonight we had somewhat of a breakthrough in our family worship time. We typically do this after dinner, though it is sometimes hard to maintain in the midst of a busy week. When we do gather for this time, it usually looks more like Owen and Daddy worship rather than Whole-Family worship, since Kristen is on Baxter and Baxter is everywhere. But tonight, Baxter had a breakthrough experience of content, joyous, and relatively focused participation in family worship. (By the way, our family worship time isn't anything spectacular, just a brief prayer, a hymn that Daddy picks, a reading and explanation of probably 1-2 verses of Scripture, a question or 2 from the kids' catechism, a song that Owen picks, and a closing prayer...maybe 5-10 minutes total.)

The point at which Baxter was most fully engaged was when Kristen and I were asking our 2 boys a series of questions flowing out of the first part of Psalm 119:12: "Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!" We would say, "Boys, which is better: hamburgers, or God?", to which they would respond "GOD!!!" (Baxter: "GAAAHHH!!!" with right hand raised high pointing to the ceiling [we will eventually straighten out his current view that the presence of Almighty God is centralized in our family room ceiling]).

But as is often the case, what I was saying to our boys actually helped and humbled me a great deal. Which do I think or feel or act-as-if is better: God, or hamburgers...God, or Dairy Queen...God, or Alias (yes, we are watching old seasons...thank you Netflix)...God, or (fill in the blank)? I need to believe the Scriptures that "Your steadfast love is better than life" (Psalm 63:3), and "in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11), and "to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Any joyful experience of hamburgers or any other created thing must be a joyful experience of God as the one who gives those good gifts, and whose goodness is displayed continually to us through them. God is better than hamburgers.