Contentment...village style

I wish I had brought my camera to share this picture with you. On Friday, David and I were making some visits in the village of Burgersdorp where we are working on Sunday mornings. As we went house to house giving out Gospel tracts and inviting people to come and study the Word of God, we took in many sights that are certainly the norm for David and becoming commonplace to me. Sights that sometimes grab my attention and remind me how strange of a picture this is compared to how life was for me growing up in the USA. Sights that could revolutionize your life if you would let them. As David was talking with a lady, I noticed her young child, probably 3 yrs old playing in the dirt. Only his toys were not made by Tonka or Playskool. His toy was not a truck or a shovel. His toy was an old underarm deodorant container, that had the guts taken out, to make a nice makeshift 'dumptruck'. I watched as he methodically filled it with dirt, dumped it on a scrap of notebook paper, and then carried it over to a larger pile, and repeated the process again and again. I know your children, like mine, probably oftentimes play with the box more than the toy inside, but this little chap had no other toy. None.

As I returned home and saw the piles of toys that my children are blessed to have, I realized that contentment is not acquired by getting just a few more toys. It is not a result of getting what I want or often even what I think I need. Contentment is being thankful for the things that God has allowed me to have and making wise use of them. You may think your existence is primitive compared to some around you, but you really should look again, and then return to count your blessings. Next time you are tempted to complain about the things in life that you are doing without, I hope that you will remember this little fellow. May we all strive to learn the lesson of Hebrews 13:5.