For the 11th day of Christmas, I relaxed my usual bah humbug attitude to candy and set some out for my girls when they woke. My middlest took a look at hers and said “Ah, I was hoping for something different. We got this candy on some of the other days [of Christmas].” So I took them away. She cried.

She’s a sweet but self-centered little girl. She looks gift horses in the mouth.

There is a purpose to my paternal pique. She’s ungrateful because she only thinks about her own hopes and feelings. My hope is that she will start to think about the feelings of others if only because she is afraid that she might lose her candy, or whatever else, if she doesn’t. I believe that fear for her own pleasures will be one avenue that gets her thinking about other people and their motives and needs. Once thinking about other people, empathizing with him to get inside their heads for self-protection, love and affection may blossom. Fear of man may be the beginning of wisdom for her.

Loving man is one of the two great commandments. The other is to love God. Perhaps that other commandment is the reason we are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear is awareness, which we know God demands. Awareness is the beginning of love.