Discovery Toys “Toy Sort”
This was so funny to me and maybe only me but here it is…
I went to a kid’s fair last weekend. The kind where several booths are set up offering free this-or-that’s but mostly armloads of candy to draw the kids.
The Discovery Toy booth caught my attention so I picked up a catalog. Toward the back, they offered a five step solution to the problem, “My kids have too many toys!” [Translation: my kids are board, lack motivation and seem uninterested in more of the same.] Of course the motivation of Discovery Toys is to help parents make room for more toys but in light of recent posts, I saw it as the parody that follows:
TOY SORT – ADULT SIZE according to I Corinthians 13:11-13
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1. Review - The Educational Consultant [Holy Spirit] will help you determine how to find the ‘toy keepers’ [those things that delight and enrich your heart] and the ‘toys you can do without’ piles [those things that put your heart to sleep or worse]. This reveals how your child plays [true- how I spend my free time, money, energy is revealing]. This step sounds simple but the reason there are so many toys is that nothing has ever been put away after a child outgrows it. (Ah, a Toy Sort is clearly what Paul was referring to in this passage!)
2. Edit - Toys are sorted [inventory of where my time, money, energy etc. goes is a powerful thing to do]. Toys are packed away that are not age appropriate [the moment of truth, do I want to continue to spend my resources this way?] and passed along or stored [where I store my stuff and for which "age" are very important keys to my heart day-to-day].
3. Organize – Toy storage is an important component of the Toy Sort. Having things categorized [Yikes! Unholy, Common or Holy?] and having a place for each toy is highly beneficial for the child [This reminds me of the verse about "where my storage is, there will my heart be also. If I keep needing more and more storage it's not a good thing for my heart].
4. Recommend - DT consultants [Holy Spirit] really come in handy here! They will help guide you to the next fun toy [He will guide us into all Truth so that we delight ourselves in knowledge of God. Like the angels around His throne we'll say, "Holy! Holy! Holy! Meaning, "That's who You are? WOW!" "That's who You are? WOW!" "That's who You are? WOW!" once we see Him clearly. We will willingly trade our lesser religious toys for a fascinated heart!]
5. Benefit – The goal of the Toy Sort Service is for parents and children to feel good about their playtime together. ["This is eternal life", Jesus said, "to know the Father and the One whom He has sent." Nothing can be more enjoyable, we were made for this revelation!]
I mean really weak prayers like, “Help us!”
