She gave me something to think about.... by Zechariah Haile

I found my self working through the church directory doing some over the phone ministry.  It was mid afternoon and I was getting answering machine after answering machine. By this call I was only half present absent mindlessly reading and dialing in the number waiting for the machine. However this time someone answered. It was a little old lady who lived alone. I asked her if there was anyway I could pray with her. When she responded her words felt like a knife in my gut.
She began to tell me some problems her family was facing and then she said "Satisfied people or so dissatisfied."  As she spoke her words carried such weight that the statement instantly left an impact and impression on me.

She began telling me about growing up in the rural midwest during the dirty 30's and great depression and some of the struggles they faced. She told me how she wished her Grandkids could spend a month in the place and time she grew up in. Then she told me "times are not all that bad right now." "Discontent" she would say "it all lies in discontent."
As she continued to speak I began to feel more and more convicted. I realized that I was forgetting my blessings because I was choosing to focus more on on the things I had lost or didn't have, or had yet to receive. I found myself questioning if the only time we DON'T appreciate or value something in our consumer society is when it is in the palm of our hand. We want things we miss things but how often do we give thanks for things in the moment. Like little kids we beg and hope and wish and pray for things until we are given them and then suddenly it's lost its value to us.

It appears to me that all too often we question God's goodness well enjoying His blessings. We cry and beg God to fix and give instead of thanking Him for what He has done or what He has kept us from dealing with. 
I can breath, I can see, I can read... I have 3 things to be thankful for right there.
Lets get back to praising God and stop being the dissatisfied satisfied. 


Zechariah is a WMA Associate Missionary, to learn more click here.

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