More! More! More!

From the minute we entered this earth we began demanding things for ourselves. We wanted food, we wanted attention, we wanted mom. We began to get a bit bigger and we wanted toys, we still wanted food and we wanted to not go to bed. We hit our teen years and we wanted a cell phone as good as our friends, we wanted a car, we wanted this gadget and that big person's toy. How easy it is for us to want things! We feel we have a right to be happy. What makes us happy? More things, more attention, more love, more free time, more me time, more, more, more!

So easy it is for us to live a selfish life. A life where we think mainly of ourselves and very little of others. When we think about why this comes so easy it is no surprise that it does. Because this is something we are born with, our parents will desperately try to train out of us, but due to the large push from society around it is impossible to completely erase from a person's life. Society pushes nothing but self. We now feel we have a right to anything. A right to do what we want to do with our bodies, a right to spend our money that we make, a right to work where we want and for the wage we feel sufficient to fill all our wants, a right to do what we want when we want it. Don’t worry about others till you are happy. You don’t need to give to others till you have the car you want, the house you want and the boat you want.

How far we have come from the mindset God had in place! Do unto others as you would have them do to you and Jesus first, yourself last and others in between are so lost in our society today.

I liked to think that my parents have raised me to be an unselfish person, but how quickly being in a relationship has changed my mind. When you try to merge two lives you quickly learn that this is impossible to do while being selfish. As both of you give up your desires and plans for the other person you begin to understand what it truly means to live an unselfish life. Its no wonder that so many relationships in today's society don’t last when the world is spouting out to look out for yourself first and  do what makes you happy! Relationships don't work that way! In order to live in a happy relationship you need to be thinking about the other partner more than yourself. This works perfectly when both sides of the party choose to do this. Is this easy? Nope, because we will always have that selfish little monster inside of us. It will forever be a battle to work on.

As a Christian, I believe I have no rights. I own nothing. My body isn't mine. Anything I have is God's. God owns my money, my car and my boyfriend. God has chosen to give them to me for the time being and has entrusted me to take care of them. God created my body and it is His. I have no right to choose what I want to do to it, but God has asked me to take care of it. He has asked me to not do things to it that will hurt it. I have no rights. I am simply a tool that has been privileged enough to be used by God to better His kingdom.  God can choose to take away any of these things at anytime if He so chooses.

Does the thought of having nothing and no rights scare me? No. It doesn’t. I know that God is all-powerful. I know God has a plan for me. I know that He wants what is best for me. If I am able to remember those things than this thought doesn’t scare me at all. I know that my job is to take care of the things that God has blessed me with. I know that my time is not even mine and I need to use it the way he wants me to.

I have a lot to learn in the selfish area. So quickly I forget to be a servant, forget to help others before doing unnecessary stuff for myself, and forget that I have no rights. My prayer is that God will continue to work in my life in this area.