A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart

This is a lesson we can learn from Madame Blueberry on Veggie Tales. She is so blue because she wants new things like her neighbors and friends have. The associates of the new Stuff Mart come to tell her that she can get happiness by buying lots more stuff. As she loads up several carts, they ask her if she wants to see the toaster ovens and…  

She answers, “I don’t think I need one”.

They say,” Of course you don’t need any of this, but you want it”. 

She has a revelation, “I want what that little boy and little girl have with one ball and one piece of pie and that is a happy heart”.

The associate responds, “Oh, we don’t sell those here”.

 When she takes all of her new stuff home and it is too much, her house cannot contain it and it falls off the tree and crashes into pieces. This is a cartoon people! But one with a powerful message even for us as adults. And then they sing a catchy tune at the end of the show of how a thankful heart is a happy heart.

How much of the consumption of our wants actually steal away our true happiness? Thankfulness for our needs provides everything our heart could ever want. Contentment with what we have is the key to unlock our happiness.

“Godliness plus contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6

We usually don’t know what we have until we don’t have it anymore. I don’t want to be guilty of ungratefulness so God has to start taking things away to get my heart right. Things like health, family, food, shelter, friends, church, vehicles, beds, and many more blessings. As I write this, I realize some readers might not have all of these right now in their lives. Isn’t it when something is taken away, it heightens our ability to see what really matters. When we don’t have everything, we can appreciate the beauty of what we do have.

I don’t want to teach my kids how to live in this consumer driven lifestyle and allow a bunch of stuff to be a substitute of real happiness. I feel like taking away everything we own and starting over. Giving it to people who really need it. And learning to appreciate all the plenty we have filling our homes to overflowing. In fact, the fuller my closet gets of my beloved clothes, the more discontent grows inside of me.

The truth is my wants and needs blur together and often times, I have a hard time telling them apart. I have all I need and not everyone even has that. When I witness the homeless and needy in my own community, I am sickened with the greediness that threatens to rule my life. I am very close to getting rid of everything. I am rethinking the entire way we do life at this point. At what point is enough so that my house doesn’t fall down and crash?

God, please show my how I can teach my kids that a thankful heart is a happy heart.