I Can Pour My Own Cereal

The other day may eldest child, Cady, who is almost 6 years old made an interesting statement while we were at the dinner table. She stated rather confidently that when she turns six she will be able to take care of herself. My wife had a I gave a out a surprised, "Oh really!" and asked Cady to explain why she thought that she could take care of herself when she turned six. She replied to that question by saying "Well, I can pour my own cereal." and I will add that does not include pouring her own milk without spilling it.

It is amazing the confidence that we can have when we gain knowledge, talent, position, and/or resources. When we gain these, we can forget where these things came from, and we can forget our limitations. These past couple of years have reminded me that God gives me daily bread. That is he takes care of me every moment of every day. Sometimes he allows me to use my own strength to satisfy some daily needs, but I am reminded that if I have strength or resources it is only because God has give them to me.

Take note of the passage below, where the the nation of Israel is warned to remember God when the have prosperity.

Deuteronomy 8:10-14
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Pouring our own cereal is fine, but let's remember who gave us the cereal, the strength to pour it and who will even give us help to pour our milk when we need that.

A New Way of Accounting.

Dependence on the God is such a beautiful thing, because within dependence our spiritual vision is sharpened and we are able to appreciate, with the vividness of HD, the great love of God for his children. But it seems that in times of prosperity, independence sets in and we forget that we must rely on the Father. So, while enjoying the luxurious life we tend to slip further away from the "Giver of Life".

So what is the remedy of the our human tendency to slip away from our Father's provision in times of prosperity? I propose a new way of accounting. Instead of counting how deep our pockets go, lets count how deep our relationship with the Father is. If we, his children, live luxuriously in his love then the first temptation to turn to independence will feel like throwing away the very air we breathe. Go ahead, try not to breathing for a while. If you try it, then you will find that you will always come back gasping for the very air you tried to live with out. Let's try a new way of accounting and learn where the true luxurious life comes from, because anything else will leave us gasping for our Father.