How much is too much?

I think by piling toys on top of toys we aren't doing our children a service. Yes it's fun to give them things and watch their faces light up. But what are we teaching them? To love worldly possessions..? a few toys just isn't enough..? They can appreciate them to the moon and back, and I hope they do!, but I want to teach them something more. Everything we do or teach them should have an eternal purpose.

We live in a me, me, me world; it's not normal to give sacrificially. We think we can't give this or that or money or our time ('that's my family time'). I think family time is an important part of life! But more importantly is giving to God.

I want to teach my children to have compassion for those less fortunate than we are, the way Jesus did. God wants us to sacrifice and give sacrificially. Whether that's giving money (that's not ours anyway), to give toys away (that God provided us the money for, so they're not really ours), or maybe it's just giving Him our time; feeding the homeless, visiting people at the nursing home, taking someone a meal....whatever it may be. God will put people in our lives to give to- if we are willing.

I'm not saying you have to give everything you own, or give your grocery money. I don't think God means for you to do without food, but maybe that last pizza we bought- we shouldn't have. Maybe that money, God wanted us to put in the plate for missions, or maybe there is someone you should have given it to. And I'm not saying He wants you to give every extra penny you have either. I'm just trying to be in tune with what God wants me to give. There was a lady in front of me at Walmart yesterday checking out, when it came time to pay she was frantic looking in her purse for her wallet and couldn't find it. I asked her if I could pay for it; I could tell she didn't like the idea and was embarrassed, but a little relieved, I think. As I started for my purse, she found her check book. Even though I didn't pay for her stuff, and even though it was only $11- I think God was using that as a teachable moment for me; To see if I would be obedient. Just the same way we do to teach our children.

I've said this in my last several blogs, and it's becoming my favorite quote:
Jesus' character set the standard!
We have to be intentional- it's hard to live according to God's word; we have to make a plan to make his goals our goals!

I'll leave you with this- in Hebrews 12:11 God's promise says, "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness."