Somebody’s callin’ my name

Ever since our grandkids moved in with us a little over a year ago, I have been amazed at the level of spoiledness of today’s kids. They are so loving and sweet, but SPOILED rotten! They have so many toys, you can’t see their floor, but they are always wanting something else. Our precious granddaughter can’t go 10 minutes without crying or whining about something. Seems like she’s always unhappy.

Yesterday we took them to the Great Pumpkin Patch. It’s an amazing place. Live entertainment, food and crafts, a whole area of giant inflatable jumping thingies, horse rides, petting zoo, hayride to the pumpkin patch where they got to pick out their pumpkin – everything you could want, right? Well, little Brayden sees the ONE thing that he’s not able to do – the bungee jump. For one thing, it was $10; for another, it was for ages 12 and up. So even though he got to do everything else on the farm, he started whining about wanting to bungee jump and was unhappy for at least 20 minutes about it. I finally leaned down to talk him into an attitude adjustment: “Brayden, we have all these other wonderful things that you are doing and instead of appreciating them, you are getting all upset about the ONE thing that you aren’t going to be able to do. You need to tell Pops ‘thank you’ for bringing you here and letting you do all this stuff and dry up about the one thing you can’t do!”

As I was speaking to him, I’m pretty sure I felt a tap on the shoulder. I turned around and it was God. I’m not sure if God rolls His eyes, but if He does, I bet he rolled them at me yesterday. As the words to Brayden were coming out of my mouth, I realized that those very words have been applicable to me for many years. Am I not just like that spoiled little boy? I have everything in the world to be thankful for – and I am – I thank God for my blessings every day. But I also complain about every little ache and pain. I constantly worry about our finances (or the lack thereof) and always wish we had more money. I have a good Christian man as my husband, but I am always wishing he would spend more time with me. God gives me so many blessings – a family to love, a job that I enjoy, a home, a free country to live in, a church family to support me, reasonable health (which would be much better if I had been a better steward of it), enough money to pay my bills, – so many things. But I spend so much time unhappy and wishing for the things I DON’T have. What a spoiled rotten little kid I am.

I hope I can remember this gentle lesson from my Lord for longer than a couple of days. The next time I forget, Father, please give me another little nudge.

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