In the past year or so I have noticed something within my family, myself included. When we are greedy for more we lose sight of being grateful for what we already have or received.
For example, my youngest redhead and one of her BFF's get the spend almost every Saturday together because we do home church together. They are usually together a minimum of 5 hours. One day a few months ago they had been together at least 7 hours and when we sounded the call for leaving in a few minutes they both went up in arms, begging and pleading for more time. What ended up happening is they wasted the few minutes they had left with each other arguing with us parents about more time. Not once did it occur to them to be grateful for the 7 hours they got. They were simply greedy for more. Or just yesterday my other daughter had to be picked up early from a youth leadership retreat that was important to her. We had a commitment that couldn't be changed. Instead of being grateful that she got to participate in it for almost 10 hours she was negotiating to stay the remainder of the time and cancel our prior commitment. She wasn't grateful at all, it seemed to us, for the chance to be at the retreat for the majority of the time. She was greedy for more. The hub and I get cranky and greedy for more also. Usually his comes in the form of material things that he thinks he should be providing for his family, mine comes in time spent with the besties in my life, especially the ones who live out of state. He and I are both learning to be grateful for what we have and not be greedy for more and we are trying to teach our redheads the same life lesson. Gratitude is a life lesson.
When we are greedy for more we are blinded to what is right in front of us. The greed for more time, more money, more fill in the blank keeps us from gratefulness for what we have been given. We live in a society where we are told bigger is better, more is valued over less, and a discontent for what we do have is bred through social media, commercials, and the comments of others. In fact, to prove this very point I ran across this timely blog post just this morning. Hop over here for a minute and read this and then come back to me.
See what I am saying? See the battle we get introduced to through the innocent, "well meaning" comments of others? Not to mention the commercials that encourage us to trade in and up for better. But is bigger better when it means we are living above and beyond our means? Is more a desirable thing when we have no room to store more or we hoard the more?
How have you seen your greed for more affect your Gratitude Attitude?
What is something today that you can be grateful for and not attach to it a desire for more of it or an upgraded version of it?
*This post is also over at Coffee House Conversations.
For example, my youngest redhead and one of her BFF's get the spend almost every Saturday together because we do home church together. They are usually together a minimum of 5 hours. One day a few months ago they had been together at least 7 hours and when we sounded the call for leaving in a few minutes they both went up in arms, begging and pleading for more time. What ended up happening is they wasted the few minutes they had left with each other arguing with us parents about more time. Not once did it occur to them to be grateful for the 7 hours they got. They were simply greedy for more. Or just yesterday my other daughter had to be picked up early from a youth leadership retreat that was important to her. We had a commitment that couldn't be changed. Instead of being grateful that she got to participate in it for almost 10 hours she was negotiating to stay the remainder of the time and cancel our prior commitment. She wasn't grateful at all, it seemed to us, for the chance to be at the retreat for the majority of the time. She was greedy for more. The hub and I get cranky and greedy for more also. Usually his comes in the form of material things that he thinks he should be providing for his family, mine comes in time spent with the besties in my life, especially the ones who live out of state. He and I are both learning to be grateful for what we have and not be greedy for more and we are trying to teach our redheads the same life lesson. Gratitude is a life lesson.
When we are greedy for more we are blinded to what is right in front of us. The greed for more time, more money, more fill in the blank keeps us from gratefulness for what we have been given. We live in a society where we are told bigger is better, more is valued over less, and a discontent for what we do have is bred through social media, commercials, and the comments of others. In fact, to prove this very point I ran across this timely blog post just this morning. Hop over here for a minute and read this and then come back to me.
See what I am saying? See the battle we get introduced to through the innocent, "well meaning" comments of others? Not to mention the commercials that encourage us to trade in and up for better. But is bigger better when it means we are living above and beyond our means? Is more a desirable thing when we have no room to store more or we hoard the more?
How have you seen your greed for more affect your Gratitude Attitude?
What is something today that you can be grateful for and not attach to it a desire for more of it or an upgraded version of it?
*This post is also over at Coffee House Conversations.
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