Personal Growth
Basketball Is the Solution
5 min read
4 min read
Getting out of the "All-I-need-is" syndrome and embracing the moment.
Women - myself included -- are frequently trying to impose some control on their desire to shop, with greater and lesser degrees of success. One strategy is to quit cold turkey, an almost guaranteed failure - trust me! Another is to link a new purchase to a desired behavioral change - perhaps weight loss. A new pair of shoes for every 5 pounds. The sophisticated version of gold stars and baseball cards.
And then there are the psychological tools we use on ourselves. My favorite is "All I need is…" "All I need is one more black skirt and then my wardrobe will be complete." (Although living with teenagers I have become attuned to the multiple varieties of black skirts!) "All I need are some beige heels." "Just one more scarf to accessorize." "I'll buy one more bracelet and wear it every day."
Except, of course, it never works that way. We're never satisfied with the quantity of our clothing, the size of our homes or the amount and frequency of the gifts God gives us.
The memory of singing Dayenu is still fresh in my mind. It's a lesson I need to continuously relearn. Would it really have been enough for us if the Almighty had taken us out of Egypt but not split the sea? Like our ancestors in the desert, we are constantly complaining, dissatisfied and waiting for the next "miracle" before we are happy, before we thank the Almighty.
Like our wardrobes, we feel our lives are incomplete and wait for total wish/dream fulfillment before we experience true gratitude.
Sure God has been good to me, but if only He would… enlarge my bank account, remodel my home, get my son into the right school, find good matches for my children, enlarge their bank accounts… Is it time to be grateful yet?
God doesn't need our prayers. And He doesn't get the warm fuzzies on account of our gratitude. It's all for us. We need to recognize our gifts and express our thanks, for two important reasons:
At many times in many ways we tend to be self-centered and demanding. We tend to lack gratitude. And we tend to miss the opportunity for greater joy and peace that it would afford us. We're always waiting for the next miracle, that magical thing or occurrence that will guarantee eternal satisfaction and pleasure. We're waiting for that "happily every after."
There's no need to wait; we can create our own. Isn't it time we all really said "Enough" - Dayenu?