As we enter into a new year once again, I like to reflect back on the year before. I like to see where I started the year, and where I was when it ended. This last year, 2015, causes me to reflect on the goodness of God, His abundance and His provision.

As a mother, it is my desire to see my children fully satisfied, happy and enjoying life as much as possible. However, I find myself with the mindset that they are spoiled and don’t have much value for anything they have. This is very disappointing to me as I think on it. As parents we try to instill in our children the same values we have, but as my husband and I have been discussing this, this is a problem. We cannot instill the same values, they have no grid for where we came from, how we grew up, lived our lives, worked for what we have etc. I’m a bit angry at how much we have sacrificed and given to be where we are today and the laze de faire attitude that this current generation seems to have relative to these values. Just yesterday I had to repent for my bad attitude. God gave me a good spanking and said, “If you take care of you and I, then I (God) will take care of everything else”.

God’s intention is to bless each of us abundantly. He doesn’t expect us to “work” for His blessing. If God doesn’t want me to work for His blessing, then how can I expect my children to work for their blessing? I don’t want my children to grow up the way I did, where I had to earn/work for everything. I’m not saying we should not work, but what are we working for? What is the motive behind our work? God’s motive is to bless. Ours is usually so we can meet what we see as needs, and be successful.

Every year since I have been married to my husband, my father-in-law would ask for our Christmas wish list. We would all send him our wishes and for the most part, we would open those gifts at each Christmas. Now, I grew up with a poverty mindset (this is what defines what our values are) in our home and not one of abundance, although we saw moments of abundance a few times. My wish list’s seemed to always be very short, and small, not asking for much and only asking for little trivial things. A few years ago, my wish list consisted of…a rice cooker. Yes, a rice cooker. I received that rice cooker, but as I sat back and watched everyone else open their gifts they were opening, Ipads, Iphones, Laptops, TV’s, all kinds of expensive gadgets and electronics. At that moment I felt like the Holy Spirit said to me, “Veronica, this is how I want to lavish gifts upon you”. Now my mindset had always been to not ask for too much, just what I ‘needed’. Needless to say, the next year I asked for a laptop, and that is what I got.

My father-in-law passed away this last March much to everyone’s surprise. We experienced great loss with his passing, but in November we signed papers on a home that we have been dreaming of having for a very long time. When we signed the papers, I was excited beyond belief, but at the same time feelings of guilt rose up and it has been a journey to really experience and accept the fact that, I didn’t work for any of this. It wasn’t my life’s savings that got us this home. It was the fact that someone else worked for years and years just so I could have this place. Once again, God is saying to me…you don’t have to work for my blessing, all I want you to do is receive it and give it away. When God gives something to us, it’s not ours to use exclusively upon ourselves, to hoard or to hide, like the story of the ten talents in the Bible. To whom much is given, much is required. But also, to whoever gives much, more will be given to him.

The best way to teach our children to have value is for them to see us, as parents, have value for the things of the Kingdom. It all starts in our perspective of God’s law of blessing in our lives. If our children see the value we have for what God does, then they will begin to see it and their own value systems will begin to form. Having a Kingdom perspective of value will never give room for entitlement, so we won’t need to worry about our kids having an entitlement attitude, if we are declaring our own value for the Kingdom and the blessings that come with it.

God’s way is to receive His blessing, don’t work for it, value the transformation that just came (I’ve just been set free from my load), then give the life-change away that just happened as a result of His grace infused into my life.

So as we enter 2016 let’s keep our focus on Him, our hearts in a posture to receive His blessing and our motives to value what He gives! His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom! His resources are limitless! His blessings are ready to be poured out on all creation!