spoiled

I started a thought on sunday morning during my offering meditation that I think that I’ll finish here.


how do you keep yourself from becoming spoiled?


everyone knows what a spoiled kid looks like:
ungrateful;
demanding;
selfish;
pouting;
having everything, yet never satisfied;
materialistic;
without compassion for others.


I love to buy jane gifts, but I need to control myself for the sake of her heart. I don’t want her to think that she deserves everything that she sees. I want her to understand that when she gets a gift, that it’s a gift; not her salary for being my kid.


when we were children, our parents monitored whether we were spoiled or not. some parents do a great job with this, some don’t. when we’re grown, we don’t have anyone who monitors whether we are spoiled or not. we have to keep ourselves from becoming spoiled rotten. but how?


as I typed that list of what a spoiled kid looks like, I can’t help but think that it describes so many people in the world that I live in. in a lot of ways, that list describes me.


it seems that once our parents stop monitoring whether we our spoiled or not, no one does. we don’t seem to monitor ourselves very well. we buy anything, and everything that we want, without giving consideration to those that have nothing, or what these self-gifts are doing to our hearts.


how do you keep yourself from being spoiled?
maybe we need to say to ourselves the same things that our parents used to say to us:
“you don’t need that.”
“we can’t afford that.”
“you’ll stop caring about that in a week.”
“think of the kids who have nothing.”
“you have so many toys already, you don’t have space for anymore.”
“wait until christmas.”


how do we keep ourselves from being spoiled?
by saying no to ourselves.
by becoming content with what we have.
by sharing what we have with the poor and with the church.
by supporting great organizations that are helping others.
by having an open hand with our money to God.
by remembering that there are so many that have so little.


jane and I had a funny conversation the other night. we were looking online at some mickey mouse golf clubs, when we saw a mickey mouse shopping cart with all kinds of mickey mouse groceries in it.
she said to me, “I need that dad.”
I told her, “you already HAVE a shopping cart! you don’t need 2!”
“but this one is a MICKEY shopping cart.” she said.
“you make a pretty good point.” I said.