The Way God Has Blessed

February 5, 2025

From Pastor Joseph Wamack

It has been interesting for Vonnie and me to be involved in our three grandsons lives so much in the past year. We have Benjamin who is almost 6, Samuel who is almost 4 and baby Julian who is 8 months. It has been wonderful but also full of stress and distractions. It also brings back memories about when we parented our own two sons who are now grown men.

One lesson I have been reminded of is that you are only as good as the last “nice” thing you did. No matter how many times you have said “yes” to your kids or given them a treat or taken them to the zoo, allowed them to go to a sleepover, allowed them to play video games or stay up late-when you say NO the next time, then the tears and cries of despair and “you are the worst parent ever!” ring out. It is as if they are suffering the most unfair, tortuous thing ever!

I first learned this lesson when we lived in Dayton and took our kids to Kings Island. (King’s Island is like a poor man’s Disney World. Good but smaller and less complicated). All day long I had my wallet open and my credit card out. I paid for overpriced parking, soggy overpriced pizza, stood in line for stupid rides, drank too many sweet, overpriced Slushies, ate fattening funnel cakes, stood next to sweaty under-showered people and finally walked to my too far away parked car to head home.

On the way home, I stopped to get gas, and my kids asked if they could get a soda from the store. I said, “No, you had soda earlier. We are almost home. It’s too close to bedtime. I am out of money”-pick one of those reasons! They weren’t having any of it and erupted like they had just been cast into the bottomless abyss, never to experience life’s pleasures again. “How could you, Dad? You are so mean? My friends always get a soda when their nice dad stops for gas. Mommy!” I learned the lesson that you are only as good as the last thing you said yes to.

We will see some of that in the sermon tomorrow from Exodus 16. It is a story about Moses and the freed Hebrews. No, they didn’t get to go to their version of Kings Island, and no, they didn’t get to have overpriced pizza, but they sure knew how to grumble against their leader.

People often show a thankless, short-term memory about the goodness they have received. The Hebrews show us a good example of this. Gone from Egypt for only a month, the people accused Moses and Aaron of deliberately leading them into the wilderness to kill them. They forgot the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea. They had sung their songs of praise, as they triumphed over Pharoah and looked back and saw his army drowned on the seashore, but now, they were hungry. They had a hard time believing God would satisfy their hunger even after He delivered them from the hands of death. And so He sent them the daily miracle of manna to remind them. “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Let us not forget the goodness of God. When circumstances around us make us feel like we are lacking or forsaken, let’s remember the way God has blessed us in the past. It is quite easy to complain, grumble and look at what you don’t have. That can lead to bitterness or a miserable life. Let’s dwell on what we do have. And live with a thankful heart.