A story in God’s Little Devotional Book tells of a farmer who had lived on the same farm all his life. It was a good farm, but as the years passed, he became dissatisfied. Every season he discovered more things he disliked about his farm, and at last he called a real estate agent and asked to have his farm placed on the market. When it was sold he would move on to find something better.
The real estate agent arrived and walked across the farm, preparing a description of it. Before he printed the advertisement, he called the farmer and read the ad aloud. The list of advantages was long: fertile fields that produced abundant crops, healthy cattle, barns in good repair, wide meadows, good water supply, and a two-story house. This, he said, was how he would advertise the farm, and since it was prime land, it should sell fast.
“Wait!” cried the farmer before the agent hung up. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to sell. I’ve been looking for a farm like that for a long time.”
Wealthy business magnate John D. Rockefeller was once asked, “How much does it take to satisfy a man?” His reply? “A little more than he has.”
Harboring a critical and discontented attitude is a sure way of forgetting our blessings. It is only as we practice gratitude that our eyes are opened to all we really have.
Proverbs 15:6 reminds me, “In the house of the righteous is much treasure.” Here, in our homes, is the real treasure God has given: love, harmony, and joy; the children who are a “heritage of the LORD” (Psalm 127:3), and a haven from life’s storms. Instead of becoming critical and disillusioned about the things that are wrong, I have a choice. I can work to improve them while being grateful for what is right.
“You create the atmosphere of the home with your attitude,” author Elizabeth Elliot once said.27 Kashena Violet adds in a poem, “Your perspective is a lot of your attitude / and your attitude will control your thoughts / and your thoughts will control you.”28
What we see depends a great deal on what we’re looking for. Sometimes we’re a lot like the farmer who decided to sell his farm because he saw only the negatives. The positive things were there too, but he couldn’t see them as long as he focused only on what was wrong.
The atmosphere in our home reflects our attitude just as surely. The whole family often absorbs the attitude of the mother, which places a lot of responsibility squarely on her shoulders. Do we see our family as our treasure? They’ll pick up that attitude. Or do we view them as a burden, a stumbling block in the way of our selfish desires? They’ll absorb that too and react accordingly.
In the end, we usually find what we’re looking for, and life gives us back what we put into it. In the words of nineteenth-century poet Hester Cholmondeley, “Still as of old / men by themselves are priced— / For thirty pieces Judas sold / Himself, not Christ.”29
When you become dissatisfied and critical, when you go to sell the farm, be careful. You might be selling yourself instead.
| Prayer | Reflection |
| Teach me to look at life with eyes wide open, O God, and to value the treasures of home and family and church. For a critical and discontented spirit doesn’t come from you, nor does it glorify you. | How can I cultivate a grateful attitude for what is right in my life? |