We replaced the carpet in our family room last year. Then the kids got blue slime stuck to it.
We bought a new dining table—and somebody pressed too hard with a pencil when writing the grocery list, so now the words “taco kit” are permanently etched in varnish.
My husband and daughters gave me a lovely, delicate cross necklace for Mother’s Day, which I wore with affection and care—until somehow the dog got a hold of it and chewed the clasp to oblivion.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
These people, these children, these canines—they’ll just destroy them anyway. So never mind.
{Sigh…}
Have you ever declared those words aloud—or at least mumbled them to yourself? It’s kind of a mom joke, right? Save the quality furniture and boutique outfits for a day when the children are grown and no longer prone to spills and spit-up and hazards and neglect. Then maybe we’ll be able to possess items of value without risk of getting them ruined.
But I wonder. What if God looked at us that way?
He gives His children nice things, that’s for sure. Our earthly home is filled with them—blue skies, mountains, beach sand, snowflakes. Wind, warmth, sunlight, rain. He gives us people to love and talents to steward and spiritual gifts to invest. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—these are God’s prized possessions, His very own character, and He gives them to us freely.
Then what do we do with them?
We neglect them, abuse them, take them for granted—maybe not always, but often enough. On a good day we thank God for our blessings and count them one by one. On a bad day, we leave the lid off the proverbial slime container and let it leak blue goo onto the good things God gives us.
Kids these days. What’s a Heavenly Father to do?
Thankfully, God does not throw His hands up in disgust and declare us hopeless. Quite the opposite. He gives and gives and gives some more.
“Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” (Psalm 34:10)
We don’t deserve it. We cannot earn it. We just show up and He lavishes us with His love.
I wish I were more like Him.
Next time my kids treat an object carelessly, I’m going to remember I’m prone to do the same. And I’ll ask God to entrust me with more patience, more love, more kindness—all the “nice things” required to respond to my children with grace, just as He does for me day after day after imperfect human day.
I wonder if we will ever truly understand the depth and breadth of God’s mercy.
Probably not—this side of heaven.
But that’s all the more reason to be grateful for it—and to pay it forward to our own children, who are, after all, chief among those amazing gifts God gives us.
This is why we don’t deserve nice things.
But let’s dwell among them anyway, with thankfulness. Amen?
Blessings,
Becky
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