The other day I was in a diner, sitting in front of a grandmother eating with her grandson. I was trying to catch up on my reading but their conversation (which was all too audible) proved to be a distraction. The boy was about 13 and apparently, he had been grounded by his mother for playing Die Hard: The Video Game. Needless to say, the boy was not happy about his punishment. He was quite upset at his mother and thus the conversation with his grandmother was quite tense. Normally I tune people out but the emotions were getting really strong between the two of them. I don’t like to eavesdrop but I couldn’t help it in this case! Let me let you in on some of their conversation.

As I sat down, the first thing I heard was the grandmother talk to the boy about video games. "Are you going to play video games your entire life? When you become an adult and are still playing video games, no girl is going to want to date you. As soon as they find out, they will look to date someone else." I wanted to turn around and say Amen! The boy shot back though: "Grandma, there’s nothing wrong with playing video games. I will play video games my whole life because I enjoy them."

I remember having a similar discussion in school. I was never a big video game player but other boys were and they told everyone that they won’t stop playing video games even when they’re adults. None of us understood (including the boy at the table) was that our interests change as we get older. The conversation with the boy and the grandmother was more than just about video games, however. Said the grandmother: "When your mother tells you what to do, you need to obey her cause she’s your mother. It doesn’t matter what you think or what you want. That’s the way life is and you need to accept it." The boy then implied that his mother doesn’t love him. The grandmother responded, "Your mother loves you very much and only has your best interests in mind." That was when the boy’s response became the most passionate: "She doesn’t understand me! She underestimates me! She doesn’t know how strong I am!"

This is the nature of life, isn’t it? The young think they know everything but they really know nothing. Although there are exceptions to the rule, wisdom does indeed come with age. But then I thought about something else. To God, we are but stubborn 13 year olds! When it comes to what’s good for us, sometimes we don’t have a clue. Sometimes we believe that God doesn’t love us because He took this and that away. Sometimes we think that God doesn’t know how tough we are. Sometimes we say we’d be better off on our own.