The Grateful Journal Series
Chances are, you’re more fortunate than most people around the world. Eleven years ago, when I still lived on welfare as a single mother raising three children, I might’ve been considered poor based on society and the welfare system’s standards, but I somehow afforded Starbucks every morning. I will be honest with you in saying that I afforded Starbucks twice daily for seven years. Yet, I was apparently poor.
The worst part was that I believed it. All my life, I had been led to believe that because we couldn’t afford cable, a telephone, or trendy name-brand clothes, I was lesser than those who could and that people should pity me. I carried this belief into adulthood and passed it on to my children.
1 Timothy 6:6-8
“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”
The reality was that we had more than enough. We had everything we needed and just about everything we didn’t need. We were always fed and never went without a roof over our heads or clothes on our backs. Neither my children nor I ever missed a field trip at school because of money; we had toys galore, bicycles, and multiple fold-out swimming pools. We could all get a new pair of shoes long before the old ones were too worn to wear. We never missed traveling long distances to family gatherings because we couldn’t afford the gasoline—and if we couldn’t, a family member was always ready and willing to pay for us.
Many of us don’t realize how fortunate we are. We complain about all the things we don’t have instead of being grateful and happy for the things we do have. Why is it never enough? What does it take to make us content and fulfilled in the moment?
I have an answer for you. I have the only answer for you—Jesus Christ.
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