When I was a kid, I loved the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It was just awesome. But I was thinking about that book a little bit lately (don’t worry about why… ), and I was struck about how ungrateful this mouse was in this story. 

 

If you don’t know what the story is about, it’s about a mouse who wants a cookie, and then a glass of milk, then a napkin, and then a mirror to see if he had a milk mustache, and then scissors so that he can cut his hair because he saw how long it was in the mirror, and on and on and on. Now you may be thinking to yourself, “Why on earth are tearing down a children’s book in order to illustrate a point about spiritual satisfaction and thankfulness?” First of all: That’s crazy how you knew what this devo was going to be about. And second: Because I can.

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One of the most important things in the kingdom of God is giving thanks for what you have. Paul tells the church in Thessalonica, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). However, how often do we find ourselves dissatisfied in our own circumstances? I’m not paid enough. I’m not noticed by others enough. I’m not receiving enough attention from my friend. My car isn’t nice enough. We have all heard these phrases uttered in one form or another. So often we feel as though the circumstances we are in aren’t good enough for us, where we are and what we have doesn’t satisfy us. 

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In quarantine, I have been feeling this dissatisfaction in a very palpable way. I have been dissatisfied with how the school year has ended. It can be a good thing to be sad and hurt to have things taken away from you because those could have been good things. But the reality is that this dissatisfaction made it so that I couldn’t give thanks for the things that I still have in my life. I still have my family. I still have some semblance of a senior year. I still have my friends. 

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Give thanks to God for what you have today, it doesn’t belong to you. If you recognize that everything in your life is a gift from God, you can be satisfied with those things. Give thanks in whatever circumstance you are in, good or bad, because today you get to breathe in the breath of life and grow in a relationship with God, who is always good, always loving, always present, and always faithful. Be satisfied in Him, who is the Bread of life. 

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“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” (John 6:35).

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Don’t be like the mouse who always has to have more than what he already has. God has blessed you in mighty ways, give him praises of thanks for how he has blessed you, spiritually and physically.

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P.S.

I actually love If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Don’t worry.