To Be Like Dad

I recently posted this picture of my son, mowing the lawn with me to my Twitter account. My accompanying tweet said, "Getting the lawn mowed. Nice to have a 'little help.'" Little did I know, such a simple picture would inspire my friend Greg to write the following blog post. It is so good, I share it here.

Consider My Servant

Recently, a friend of mine went out to mow his lawn. While he was mowing, his 4 year old son came out, with his toy lawn mower, to “help” him. My friend was so excited and proud and impressed that his son wanted to help, that he took a picture of it and posted it on Twitter.

It’s a very cute picture: there is the front of my friend’s lawn mower (I think it’s a John Deere). To the right of the mower is the freshly cut grass, to the left of the mower is the uncut grass, and right in front of it is his little boy pushing his toy lawn mower that looks almost like Dad’s.

Now, you know he’s not really helping…it’s a toy, it’s not really doing anything, but I wonder what was going through that little guy’s mind. I came up with five things he might be thinking:

1. I want to be with my Dad.

2. I want to be like my Dad.

3. I want to please my Dad.

4. I’m really helping him out.

5. I bet he’s proud of me.

(Knowing my friend like I do, and the fact that he posted the picture, I know number 5 is true.)

I thought of a similar story in Job 1:6-9:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”

(A side note: If God twittered this question it would look like this: Have U considered my servant Job, that thr is none lk him on the earth, a blameless & upright man, who fears God & turns away from evil?)

Just like my friend, God is proud of His people who do good, after all it’s what we were created for. (Ephesians 2:10)

The thing that struck me the most is the fact that, even though God is proud of me for doing good works, and even though I get all full of myself for “helping” my Heavenly Father, I sometimes wonder if I’m mowing the lawn with a toy lawn mower. And then I think, maybe that’s what Jesus meant when He said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14)

My motivation for doing good should be 1, 2, 3, and 5 on that little boy’s list:

1. I want to be with my Dad.

2. I want to be like my Dad.

3. I want to please my Dad.

5. I bet he’s proud of me.

If I convince myself that any of my good works are worth anything I’m kidding myself. (Isaiah 64:6) But I’m going to keep doing them, because I want to make my Daddy proud.

So good! May we all strive to be more and more like our Daddy.