By Liu Mei
On a summer night, the park was quite lively. There were children playing around, adults chatting casually, and some others dancing to the music.
With a worried look on face, Zhao Fan sat on a bench alone, thinking: When my son was a baby boy, he always clung to me and chatted with me without reservation. However, as he grows up day by day, he gradually has his own pursuits, hobbies and lifestyle, and becomes ill-tempered. Every time I tried to have a heart-to-heart talk with him, we would part in discord after exchanging a few words. I feel we are farther and farther away from each other. Besides, he becomes addicted to computer games. I’ve exhorted him for many times, but he never listened to me. Now I am both mentally and physically exhausted. What should I do?
“Aunt, your handbag fell onto the ground.” A childish voice interrupted her thought.
“Oh, thank you.” Zhao Fan picked up her handbag, and stroked the girl’s head with a smile, and then went home.
On arriving at home, Zhao Fan saw that her two children sat together playing games. “Come on! Come on!” her ten-year-old daughter screamed at her brother. “Ah! You lost again. How could you be so foolish?”
Hearing this, Zhao Fan became more agitated, and slammed the door hard.
Her daughter lifted her head, “Hey, mom.”
“You two do nothing but play games all day long,” Zhao Fan said irritably to her two children. “Could you do some proper work?” Seeing them unresponsive, she became even angrier, “I was talking to you; didn’t you hear me?”
Her daughter pursed her lips and walked away with reluctance.
Zhao Fan controlled her anger, and went over to her son, “Can games put food on the table or improve your academic performance? You play games all day like a man possessed; even when having the meal, you fix your eyes on the smartphone. Is smartphone your treasure?”
Her son glanced up to her with impatience, and immediately lowered his head and continued playing with his phone. Seeing this, Zhao Fan was anxious to seize his phone and smash it.
At the moment, her daughter came to her, “Mom, don’t be angry. Please make some dinner for us; we haven’t even had breakfast yet; we are so starving.”
“I will not make dinner tonight. You two just play as you like. You don’t listen to me anyway, so I won’t care about you anymore.” So saying, Zhao Fan went into her bedroom, slamming the door angrily.
Sitting on the bed, Zhao Fan gradually calmed down, thinking: Regardless of what I said, my son never listened to me. Now not only did he not break gaming addiction, but our relationship is getting more and more awkward. Why was I so angry with him? Was it simply because of his game addiction? Or because he didn’t listen to me? Is there any other reason? What on earth made me lose my senses? Having no idea what to do, Zhao Fan came before God and told Him her difficulty. After prayer, she thought of these words of God: “Does God have an inflated notion of His position, as some people say? Telling you ‘I am the greatest of all, it is I that take charge of you, you must all beg Me for mercy and disobedience will be punished by death.’ Has God ever threatened mankind in this way? (No.) Has He ever said ‘Mankind is corrupt so it does not matter how I treat them, any arbitrary treatment will do; I do not need to arrange things very well for them.’ Does God think this way? (No.) So has God acted in this way? (No.) On the contrary, God’s treatment of each and every person is earnest and responsible, more responsible even than you are to yourself. Is this not so? God does not speak idly, neither does He stand on high putting on airs nor does He make do with fooling people. Instead He is honestly and silently doing the things He Himself needs to do” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).
Pondering these words of God, Zhao Fan came to realize: God is the Creator and Master of the universe; He is supreme and holy, yet He has humbled Himself to utter the truth on earth, doing His work of salvation, and suffering so much. Though many times we didn’t know God’s will, and even rebelled against Him, God never required us in His identity and status as God, nor did He unleash His wrath at will to anyone. He merely does His work among us according to His plan and in His own way, touching our souls with His words, accompanying us all the time, and has never given up His salvation on us. The essence of God is so beautiful and good, which is not possessed by any of us. Then what about me? Although I lost my temper with my son for educating him, there was no denying that I had exposed my arrogant nature. I always assumed my place as a mother to educate and criticize him, thinking all I did was right and for his good, and that he was supposed to obey me. Once he didn’t listen to me, I would get so exasperated and even lose my temper with him. Do I still have the likeness of a devout Christian? Though I gave birth to my son, before God we both are created beings deeply corrupted by Satan. What qualification do I have to scold him? It was so unreasonable of me to take the position of a mother and force him to listen to me and act according to my will. Thinking of these, Zhao Fan was touched by the holy and good essence of God, and even more ashamed of her arrogance and conceitedness.
Then Zhao Fan quieted her heart to seek the truth of how to get along with her son, and how to bring her son before God to obtain the guidance of Him. She knew that she herself was not able to lead her son onto the right path; only God could do that. She was willing to put herself aside and entrust her son to God completely; she didn’t want to live by satanic disposition anymore, for it would only destroy her relationship with her son and make her upset and pained.
One day, when Zhao Fan saw her son playing computer games again, she was so upset that she really wanted to unplug the computer as before. Yet she remembered the resolution she made before God, and then controlled her anger and immediately sought God in her heart. After prayer, she remembered two passages of God’s word: “If you rely on your knowledge and ability in your undertakings, then you shall always be a failure, and shall always be bereft of the blessings of God” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind”). “The heart and spirit of man are held in the hand of God, and all the life of man is beheld in the eyes of God. Regardless of whether or not you believe this, any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life”). God’s word lighted up her heart like a light, and she realized: It’s true. If I rely on my own methods, I will always fail. Aren’t the thoughts and ideas of my son in the hand of God? Then she prayed to God silently: “O God, I’m willing to entrust all this to Your hand, and let You arrange for me.” Miraculously, when her son was playing in high spirits, the keyboard somehow didn’t work; then he reluctantly shut down the computer, saying, “This is really weird.” Seeing this, Zhao Fan thanked God repeatedly in her heart. At that time, she wanted to have a heart-to-heart talk with him, but before she spoke, her son said that he had to do his homework. Then Zhao Fan prayed to God to prepare a suitable opportunity for her, willing to obey God’s arrangement.
During the dinner, her son said, “Mom, life is so boring. When I was in school, I longed for holidays so that I could relax and play as I liked, but now I feel even duller.”
Zhao Fan said, “Sweetheart, do you know the reason? In this world, everybody has his own hobby and pursuit which he considers right and proper. Then why do we feel more empty when our desires get satisfied? It is because our desires come from Satan, and can’t resolve the emptiness and worry in our heart, nor can they be our life. Only when we come before God and listen to His words, can we have peace and joy. How about we read some God’s words together after a while?”
Her son nodded, and her daughter sitting aside said, “Mom, I want to listen to God’s words, too.”
Seeing the wonderful deeds of God, Zhao Fan offered up her gratitude and praise to God in her heart, and said gladly, “Ok. Let’s read God’s words together after dinner.”
After dinner, Zhao read a passage of God’s words “Young People Should See Through the Evil Trends of the World” to her children. Through her communication, her son came to know that computer games were tools Satan used to harm man, and that if he continued playing them, he would become more and more degenerate. Understanding this, he said that he would listen to God’s word more, and play games less. However, because he hadn’t seen through the ways Satan harmed man, he still often indulged in online games, and seldom listened to God’s word. Seeing this, Zhao Fan felt worried, hoping he could get rid of Satan’s affliction as soon as possible to live a normal life. But she could do nothing to help him. Feeling utterly helpless, she could only pray to God.
Having prayed for many times, Zhao Fan found the path of practice from God’s word: treating different people in accordance with different principles and their statures. She thought: I should communicate more about my own experience of God’s word to my son, so that he won’t feel much pressured.
One day after dinner, Zhao Fan came into her son’s bedroom as he was playing with the smartphone. After she sat down, her son looked up and asked, “Mom, what’s up?”
“Well, I just wanna have a chat with you,” Zhao Fan said with a smile.
A little bit surprised, her son laid aside his phone, “About what?”
“Well, nothing special. I just don’t even feel like I know you anymore. Since you went to high school, I’ve devoted too much time to my work and ignored you. Every time you wanted to talk to me, I just had no time or didn’t listen carefully. Sometimes when you got into trouble, I always criticized you, and imposed my opinions on you. I’ve never truly understood you. So I think maybe we could have a talk today, and speak our minds. You could tell me about your school life, like whether there is someone bullying you, friends you have made with, or how you dealt with unhappy things. I don’t mean to invade your privacy; I just want to have a heart-to-heart talk with you so that I can know more about you,” Zhao Fan said peacefully.
On hearing these, the son gladly talked with her about what had happened between him and his classmates. Zhao Fan listened carefully, and then she patiently helped him with God’s words that she understood and her own experiences, teaching him whom to make friends with, how to get along with people, and which kind of bad habits he should quit, and helping him differentiate things. On that night, the son was especially happy, talking about his hobbies and future with delight. And Zhao Fan guided him according to God’s word, helping him build a right life outlook. Their talk removed the misunderstanding between them and made their relationship even closer, and they could again chat with each other without reservation like intimate friends.
From then on, her son would tell Zhao Fan first when having any problem, and Zhao Fan would listen carefully, and seek the truth from God’s word to help him. Sometimes when her son was willful and lost his temper, Zhao Fan would immediately pray to God to seek the truth; after he cooled down, she would help him realize the harm he would do to people around him when he spoke and acted relying on satanic disposition. When he played games again, Zhao Fan would pray for him and fellowship to him that computer games were tools Satan used to harm man, so that he could see through the essence of games, act on the basis of God’s words, and have the determination to abandon gaming. Unwittingly, the relationship between Zhao Fan and her son became closer and closer, and her son became willing to share his trouble and happiness with her. Besides, through reading God’s word, her son spent less and less time on games, becoming more and more sensible. Seeing these effects, Zhao Fan were grateful to God in her heart. Had it not been God’s leading, they wouldn’t have interacted on an equal footing, and their relationship wouldn’t have improved so much, and her son’s gaming addiction wouldn’t have been solved. All these were blessings of God!
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