Truth My Kids Will Know - The Way To Happiness is Gratitude

 Lie #18 - "I Deserve this...You Owe It To Me!"

"Americans Deserve Better"

"Young People Deserve Access To College"

"Everyone Deserves To Have Their Own Place to Stay"

"Children Deserve Healthy Meals At School"

"Universal Basic Income Is Something We All Deserve"

There's a lot of talk about what we deserve right now. Apparently...if you were to listen to our politicians and pop culture, the list of things we deserve goes on and on. Whereas our founders listed certain inalienable rights that our Creator gave us (Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness, Freedom of Conscience, Peacefully Assemble, Freedom of Speech, Keep and Carry Weapons) - Today's lists of "rights" are all about the stuff our country can give us for free. While our God-given rights were independent of others and didn't cost them at all, these new government-granted entitlements are expensive and actually intrude into the lives of everyone else.

But that's beside the point. Here's my main question: Why do you think you deserve those things? Is it merely for the fact that you exist? You do know that's not what the word "deserve" means, right? 

Deserve - "To merit, earn, or be worthy of something. To receive a reward based on work or character."

Just because you're breathing doesn't mean you deserve anything. 

Your life alone does not entitle you to any privileges.

For example: What can you do to deserve College? 

This is the way that works...you can do one of two things:

1 - Earn good grades in High School and qualify for a grant from a willing third party

2 - Pay for it.

The simple fact that you're alive does indicate that you deserve someone else to pay for your college degree. 

But here is where we need to draw a distinction: What did we do to deserve life itself?

What did we do to deserve our next breath?

How did we deserve parents who took care of us, fed us, and gave us a place to stay?

Do we deserve (more than others) to live in the greatest, richest, and freest nation in the world?

The answer is a resounding NO.

These are not things we deserve. They're not privileges. They're not rights to demand. They are blessings to be grateful for. 

Real Gratitude

Most people are confused about what gratitude really means. You can see this confusion every year on Thanksgiving, when some of the most ungodly and selfish people gather around a table and list out the things they're "thankful for". I want to ask them....you're "thankful" to whom?

If you can trade the phrase "I'm thankful for" with "I'm happy I have" - and not change the meaning of what you're saying...then you don't understand real gratitude. 

Gratitude isn't merely being happy you have something. Gratitude isn't realizing that other people have less than you do (i.e. "We're fortunate that we're not them..."). Gratitude - real gratitude - is acknowledging that someone else paid a price for what you have.

Gratitude is acknowledging that your parents didn't have to take care of you like they did. 

Gratitude is admitting that people don't have to be nice to you.

Gratitude is realizing that people you never met...people who lived long before you...paid a terrible price for the freedom you have in this nation.

Real gratitude focuses on the person, not on the thing they gave you.

And this is something you must remember: As long as you believe you deserve something, you will never be grateful for it.

(And if you're not grateful for it, then it will never be enough.)

The Power of Gratitude

One of the few stories that are told in all four Gospels is the time when Jesus miraculously fed a crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children. With five pieces of bread and two sardines, Jesus fed them all until they couldn't eat any more. Not only that, but the little boy who gave up his lunch ended up going home with twelve baskets of leftovers!

What a lot of people don't realize is the role gratitude played in that miracle. 

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read that Jesus "blessed and broke" the food, and then gave it to the disciples to pass out.

But in John's account we see it a little differently. There we read that He "gave thanks" and then broke it up. 

How did the blessing come on that food and multiply it? By thanksgiving!

Remember when we said that nothing would be enough without gratitude? Now we can see the flip side: with gratitude anything becomes enough! Gratefulness will take that little you have, add God's blessing to it, and multiply it to meet your every need. That's the power of thankfulness.

This multiplication is a blessing that you'll never experience if you think you deserve something. It's a miracle that you'll never see if you're always wishing you had more. If you want the supernatural increase in your life, you must first acknowledge the blessings that you already have - and thank the ones who gave them to you (both God AND other people).

While the world is talking about what they deserve and what they're entitled to just because they're alive...my kids will know the blessings and miracles that come from gratitude. They will have an uncommon knowledge that the good things in their life come from Someone else.. and they will thank Him for it every day!