Finding Contentment in the Produce Aisle

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' "

Hebrews 13:5

People are always asking me how I can possibly manage three young children at the grocery store. And although I would like to think I have mastered the art of finagling three monkeys in a grocery cart, I still have one major anxiety every time we enter the store: that silly toy aisle. I loathe that toy aisle. I thought I had figured a master plan to always avoid it, but there are now random toys, balloons and candy scattered throughout the entire place. Just the other day all I needed was a loaf of bread...and there on the end of the bread aisle was a little display of toy cars. You can't even go through the checkout with little eyes eying a bag of M&M's. And although it is really sweet that they will sometimes hand out lollipops or stickers or balloons for free, the problem is they come to expect it every time.

My almost 4 year old has started to understand that we only buy food at the grocery store, but it doesn't change the fact that I hate the society even has to tease her with the temptation. Her understanding is that mommy does not have money to buy toys when we are grocery shopping, but you can still see the lust in her eyes. But the thing is, even if I did have the extra money (we certainly are not poor), I still rarely give in to the temptation to buy a toy at the grocery store. Do you know why? Because tomorrow that toy will be old and she will want something else the next time we go...and it is an endless cycle of discontentment. I should know...I used to be the queen of discontentment.

It's kind of like Black Friday...you know, the biggest shopping day of the year. We never knew we needed all these things until we saw the latest gadget on sale for half price from midnight until 3AM. And then the silly Toysrus catalog arrives in the mail and suddenly our children don't just want a doll from Santa. They want the doll and all the accessories to go with it...accessories they didn't even know existed until their little eyes saw the picture on the cover.

If you live in the United States of America, there are very few who truly are in need of anything. We live in a nation of complete overabundance (my family just as guilty as the rest). The question is, is it the overabundance that is the problem or the fact that we have it all and still want more? I believe it is the latter. Success, luxuries, money, beauty...we all crave something more. When is it enough? When are we satisfied?

The commentary in my Bible said instead of continuing to accumulate more things, that we should give away out of our abundance. I think this is a beautiful way to live. In fact, I think it may be the only way to have true contentment with what God does choose to bless us with. After all, it's all God's anyways.

He has already given us the greatest gift of all. He gave us grace...and that is enough.