Recently, my wife began creating a grocery list. After a few days of the list being filled with things , I saw the familiar 7 year-old writing of my son along the bottom. [see the pic above] It said, “spinach did [sic] – wheat thins” (he meant “dip” but his writing was messed up). I thought it was cute as it’s something he’s never done before. I decided to make sure to get the spinach “did” and wheat thins. Fast forward to our grocery trip yesterday. We’re walking through the store as he and his sister attempt to convince me they need this or that item (junk food, of course). With my son, it was the same cycle for a while–ask for an item, I respond “no”, he whines and cries, then he pouts until he find something else he wants to ask me for. That thirty minutes felt like an eternity. As we were checking out, both of my children were helping me get the items onto the conveyor. My son came across the dip and said, “Daddy!  You got my dip!  I didn’t see you do that!!  When did you put that in there?”  I said, “You didn’t see me put it in the buggy because you were so busy complaining you didn’t to notice what I had already done for you.” He responded with a big smile, “Thanks, Dad!!”

In that moment, I knew I had stumbled across a valuable lesson. The Holy Spirit began speaking to me saying, my people are so busy praying and asking for everything they think they need they fail to notice what I’ve already done for them. It’s true. We come to God with this grocery list of desires we attempt to disguise as needs only to get frustrated when He doesn’t give us what asked for. Let’s be honest—if I gave my children everything they asked for, I’d be broke and they’d be spoiled brats. As a father, my desire is to give them everything they ever want.  But I also realize, there are certain things they don’t need because it’s not good for them. I withhold out of a desire to protect them. But youthful ignorance and immaturity prevent them from realizing that. The Apostle Paul is closing his letter to the Philippian people by thanking them for what they had done for him in the past and present. In Philippians 4:11-13 he states, “¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” The importance of his message is this- regardless of my situation—I’ve learned to be content. His contentment came from knowing he could endure anything, good or bad, because God had given him the ability to do so.  

Closing remarks and encouragement: As a society, we live in a constant state of discontentment. Our discontentment comes from frustrations that stem from what we don’t have. Believers would do well to learn to be an example to the world to stop begging God every time we see something shiny and be grateful for what we already have.  As the old country song states, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” How much easier and less stressful would life be if we could simply learn to be content in any season? Life would simpler if we just learned to say, “Thanks, Dad!”