Thursday June 4th, 2015 1 Samuel 8:4-20
"?we are determined to have a king over us, so that we also may be like other nations?"' (verses 19-20)
My family and I lived for three years in close proximity to 10 families with children the same age. Frequently, my children came home saying, “Can we have a later bedtime? So-and-so gets to go to bed later!” “Can we have more Lego? So-and-so has some that we don’t have!” “Can we go to Disneyland? So-and-so is going at Christmas!” It was easy to want to be like others.
But wanting to be like others leads us to overlook what we actually have. So we developed a new mantra in our house: “Every family does things differently.” We talked about how families have different needs, and so they all get different things. We looked at the needs of our family, and we looked at how we had enough food on our table, enough warm clothes to wear, enough books to read, and, actually, more Lego than we could play with at one time.
Sometimes we forget that God loves us so much that God responds to us each individually. We do not need to be like others, because God gives us each everything we need.
God of all good things, forgive us when we fail to see your generosity. Open our eyes to see all you have given us. Amen. — KDH
Contributed by A Cure for Envy
My family and I lived for three years in close proximity to 10 families with children the same age. Frequently, my children came home saying, "Can we have a later bedtime? So-and-so gets to go to bed later!" "Can we have more Lego? So-and-so has some that we don't have!" "Can we go to Disneyland? So-and-so is going at Christmas!" It was easy to want to be like others.
But wanting to be like others leads us to overlook what we actually have. So we developed a new mantra in our house: "Every family does things differently." We talked about how families have different needs, and so they all get different things. We looked at the needs of our family, and we looked at how we had enough food on our table, enough warm clothes to wear, enough books to read, and, actually, more Lego than we could play with at one time.
Sometimes we forget that God loves us so much that God responds to us each individually. We do not need to be like others, because God gives us each everything we need.
