Starving for contentment

I am the proud good looking mother of 2 boys.  I am the only estrogen laden person in this house.  Even the dog and the mouse are, well, boys!  Sometimes quarrels break out among my precious young testosterone producing lads, each one is exercising their way into the alpha male role - which neither are.  Today there was a disagreement over a train set - 1 is owner of the engine, the other is owner of the train cars.  This went on until I just had no choice but to butt in before I lost my mind.  "You both need each others stuff!  Suck it up and just get along."

So ending that battle.  On to the next.

My oldest child decides to play to Wii.  Oh yay, more noise.  Anyway.  In the midst of my son playing a game of the Wii, my youngest decides to go ahead and change the input on the TV so HE can watch Netflix. (I am so ready to disconnect Netflix.  If I see one more episode of Thomas, Curious George or Magic School Bus I'm going to lose my stinking mind.)  In the middle of my sons game he tries to change the input so he can watch a movie - I put a halt on that real quick.  "I don't think so, he's playing a game" - to which he replied "I'm just going to kill myself."  So I immediately became upset with him for speaking like that and told him to meet me in my room.  I was seriously about to spank him and decided on something else....
I immediately broke out my tablet and googled some images that I hope he doesn't put out of his mind too quickly.
Sometimes parenting calls for pictures of starving children being swarmed by bugs and disease, naked, hungry, clothes-less children that have absolutely nothing.  Children who are lucky they have even a bite of food.  Babies who are nothing but ribs and bones.  It's awful.  The images are sad.  I too hope that I don't put them out of my own mind too quickly either.  

Now that's a lesson in contentment for you.  We have no idea just how blessed we are.  We are a very rich people, even when we don't think we are.  We are spoiled.  We are wasteful.  We are careless.  Think for a moment about the thought of losing everything you have, down to nothing.  Think about the impact that would have on your life.  

I'm here to say, be THANKFUL for it all, be so thankful that God supplies all your needs and a whole lotta your wants - food, clean water, clean clothes, a bed, a blanket, shoes, air conditioning, toys, a place to bathe.  Just like that, it could all be gone.  What a lesson that was to me personally.  I was on the verge of making a horrible mistake by overreacting to his words, instead, I taught him to value what he has the privilege of enjoying in his life and God showed me the same thing.