Too Attached

Have you been too attached to something only for it to be taken away from you? I often wonder if it might be God telling us, "You are putting _______ before Me and you need to know what it's like to do without it." It could be our televisions, our cell phones, even our computers.

I recently dropped our laptop computer. For 2 days, we did without internet service because the screen was broken and I had a friend take it home so her husband could look at it. I could care less about getting on the internet. My problem was money-wise. We have a contract for our internet and if we didn't have a computer, that meant we would still pay for the internet service. The company could probably care less what happened. They just want their money! Luckily, our friends told us how to use our computer, which still worked, just the screen was broken. WhEW! Boy, am I glad! All my pics are on the computer. My husbands sermons are on this thing.

But, I also got to thinking about it. We once had satellite television. As soon as our contract was up, we knew we were going to cancel it. Our son was NOT happy about the decision and it was at that time that we decided that we REALLY should get rid of it. If he was that upset about not being able to watch TV, then we needed to do something about it! I cried like a big ol' baby when I broke my computer. Partly because I thought my husband would be mad (he was NOT, however) and also because I knew we were still under contract and would not purchase a new computer right now. I remember thinking I was being ridiculous about it. THAT is why I think God must have been telling me that I need to not put this computer and what it can do for me or our family before Him. God wants ALL of us, not just a small part.

Do you have an 'idol' that you put before God? Something that takes up time in your life that you could be using to glorify Him? Then, I would encourage you to take the time right now to set aside that for a while to see if you can do without it. If you cannot, then you might be putting too much emphasis on its use. We need not put material items before our worship of our Lord, or the things that make Him happy like caring for our families!

I will leave you with this thought from our Psalmist:

Psalm 119:17-18
Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your work. Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.