It's All About ___________.

     Recently I saw a little girl wearing a bright pink shirt with the words, “It’s All About Me.” printed across the top of it.  She was probably only six years old.  Her golden, curled hair was put up in a ponytail and she wore sparkly flip flops.  She looked cute, but it wasn’t long before I saw her throw quite the temper tantrum.  Suddenly, the adorable little girl was transformed into a red faced, screaming banshee.

     I was a bit taken aback though not quite surprised as I watched the little girl smack her mom’s hand away and take off running.  Just where did this sudden attitude come from?  This shirt might have seemed cute or perhaps funny, but words only indicated a self-centered attitude, giving the message to others that you should get what you want, when you want it.

     Doesn’t it seem that there is an abundance of people with the “it’s all about me”, attitude?  Many of today’s young people and also many adults have seemed to have adopted this attitude.  Perhaps this is the reason for rebellious teenagers and high divorce rates.

     Not many people seem to be willing to follow Romans 12:10, “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”.  The twelfth chapter of Romans is an amazing chapter and one of my favorites.

     Our human nature is to please ourselves, so naturally it is going to be difficult to please others, though it is not impossible!  If we were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that it is not all about us.  Romans 12:10 doesn’t say that it is all about the other person either.  Who then, is it all about?

     There is a blank in the above title of this blog post which I purposely left.  Fill it in.  Who is it all about?  To me, it’s all about God and why shouldn’t it be?  He created everything, He sent His Son to die for us so that we may be saved and enjoy eternal life, He gave us His Holy Spirit.

      That is not to say that God doesn’t want us to be happy.  He created all the things He did, to make us happy.  He created rainbows, flowers, fruit, animals, and mountains to please us and make us happy.  He gave us the five senses: sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smelling to experience good things.  Shouldn’t we use all these things to please Him?

     We can use our sight to photograph beautiful scenes of nature and bring the joy of God’s creation to others.  We can use our hearing to listen to hymns and praises so that we may learn them and sing them ourselves.  We can give others a helping hand, comfort, or encouragement by the wonderful gift of touch.

     You say that is all well and fine, but what about tasting and smelling?  How can we use those to make God happy?    Psalms 34:8 says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.”  It pleases God when we know that He is good.  The same goes for smelling.  We smell the scent of freshly fallen rain, the newly opened petals of a rose, pine needles, perhaps an apple pie baking and we say to ourselves, “Oh the Lord is so good.  Thank you, for these wonderful things!”  I know it pleases God when we thank Him for His gifts.

     Doesn’t it make you happy when you receive a gift that you were not expecting?  James 1:17 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”  God wants to give us only the best of gifts and He never wants to stop giving them.  How wonderful is that?

      He even sent His Son to us, to give us the greatest gift of all: eternal life so that we may be with Him forever.  I don’t know about you but that makes me feel special that God would want me to be with Him always.  It is not all about me or all my wants... but it is about God and His desires, because He only desires the very best for us.