“Daddy, come outside and see my piñata,” my
nine-year old exclaimed Sunday afternoon.
After a long, full morning at church on Easter Sunday we then spent
several hours with my mother who was recovering from knee surgery. Finally home, it was nice to just crash for a
while.
Dawson led me outside to see his latest
creation. My creative boy had drilled
holes into four of his remaining Easter eggs and strung them together with
yarn.
“Help me find a place to hang these in the woods and
we can have a piñata!”
We searched together through the woods and decided
upon the tree that is attached to our tree house. After securing the yarn, we instantly had a
bright and colorful yard game. Dawson
grabbed a long PVC pipe, and I snatched one of my long-sleeve shirts.
After wrapping his head in my shirt, Daws was ready
to rumble. It did not take him long
until he smacked the eggs and egg-stuff went everywhere.
“Woo-hooh, Daddy, that was cool!”
My son keeps teaching me valuable lessons. Joy can be found in the simple things in
life.
The Bible exhorts us to choose to have joy: Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. (Philippians 4:4-5)
Dawson’s experiment with the eggs gave me four reminders of simple gifts:
1. Simple gifts can often be found in those things
we already have – not just in the things we don’t.
Our children don’t always need yet
another video game, action figure, or toy.
Dads and moms, we don’t always need another purchase to make us temporarily feel
good.
Instead, at times we can ask, “What
can I do with what I already have?”
Pull out a board game for an hour
of fun. Recycle those books that we read
five years ago. This week my children
had several hours of fun going through our cedar chest and looking at photos,
baby clothes, and old letters.
2. Creativity goes a long way.
We don’t always have to purchase the biggest,
newest, and best. The advance of
technology has created a consumerism in our culture that trains us to think we
have to have “the newest big thing.”
On Black Friday last
year we purchased a flat-screen tv at a good price. For a couple of months we shopped for
entertainment centers but did not want to pay full price. My wife began searching at consignment
stores. She found an old wooden dresser,
which we purchased for about $100.00.
She spray-painted the entire dresser and it became a fabulous
entertainment center.
I love to read. As an avid reader, I have discovered that a
good used book that cost me $2.00 at Goodwill reads just as well as a brand new
one that has a cover sticker of $23.99.
3.
The pleasures of life are often best enjoyed
when we share them with someone.
My wife enjoys coffee
and I drink Pepsi. How nice it is to
enjoy such treats sitting on our deck together, watching our children play in
the back yard. We can take a walk with our
children. Ride bikes together. Explore a creek.
4.
Many
of the joys of life do not require electricity.
Richard Swenson, author
of the book In Search of Balance,
challenges families to have “Little House on the Prairie” nights when, within
reason, we do not use anything electronic for entertainment. Read together. Play games.
Talk to each other. Sing and make
music together. Enjoy the simple pleasures
that people did for thousands of years before the advent of electricity.
We are wise to remember the words of the Shaker hymn
“Simple Gifts”: ‘Tis the gift to be
simple, ‘tis the gift to be free, ‘tis the gift to come down where we ought to
be.
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