I picked one of my teen daughters up this morning from a friend’s house to go work at her older sister’s for the day. Job description: babysit and do chores.
She began to kind of whine about all of her friends going to the river today and that she had to go to work to earn money. From there it turned into wanting to get her nails done, to her hair done, to getting a car so that she could drive herself around….and on and on.
Now there is nothing wrong with all of those things. We all want to look nice. We all want our own transportation to be independent. We all know we have to work to make the money to do these things. But what bothers me is when “wanting” begins to create a discontent heart.
We live in a fairly affluent area and most of my daughter’s friends have been given cars for their 16th birthday. It is quite common for the lot of them to go out to dinner 2 to 3 times a week. NO I’m not talking about as a family; I’m talking about a car-full of teens going to IXTAPA or Red Robin or someplace like that.
AND
NO these teens do not have jobs…yet.
Are these kids spoiled? Do we live in a spoiled society where teens are just given $$ and take it for granted?
Don’t get me wrong…these kids are super nice kids and I really have no idea if they take it for granted. They also seem to be very responsible too.
So…
I see my teen longing to have what those other teens have. We live well, have a beautiful home, never go hungry and are truly blessed…so why the discontent?
Definition of Discontent: The condition of being dissatisfied with one’s life or situation…That’s according to Webster’s dictionary.
We can all fall into the trap of discontentment. Longing to have more or be more.
Discontentment can drive us to do crazy things!
- We can become bitter, envious and jealous
- We can go about doing things or striving for things to fill up that emptiness
OR
- We can go to the One and only One that can fill us and create in us a joyful heart no matter our circumstances.
I get it that teens are just learning and growing, but I can assure you that the rest of this summer will be filled with ways that I can teach my teens a heart of contentment. A heart that is thankful for what they have.
{By the way…she’s not always like that…LOL}
I’ll let you know how it goes as I devise my plan of action…
What about you? Do you see a heart of discontentment in your teens? What ways are you teaching them the value of being content with what they have, while giving them enough responsibility to be proud of what they’ve earned?
