Where Is My Blue Bowl?

I walked into the kitchen at 7AM greeted by whining. Jude was upset that he didn’t get the blue bowl for his cereal like he’d wanted even though he had not verbally expressed that the color of his bowl was an issue. Oh to be 5.  Joe was standing at the counter fixing Jude’s lunch for school and trying to ignore the complaints from the kitchen table. Being that it was still fairly early I knew Joe was still half asleep and not ready to calmly address the situation at hand so I stepped in.

“Jude, do you want breakfast this morning?”
“Yes.”
“Does the cereal taste any different in the green bowl than the blue bowl?”
“No.”
“Then eat your cereal.” – I turned to walk out of the room…
“But I wanted the blue bowl.” *whine, whine, whine

I whip back around….
“Jude, here are your options. You can eat your cereal from the green bowl OR you can have NO breakfast at all. Which will it be?”
he begins to eat his cereal.
“Now tell Dada thank you for making breakfast for you this morning.”
“Thank you Dada.”

As I walked back into the bedroom to get ready for the day I thought about how I want my children to learn to be grateful for what they have. I don’t want to raise spoiled brats that cry when they don’t get everything they want. Then I remember that children learn behavior from what they see on a daily basis, from their mom and dad. While I’ve never thrown a fit over the color of my cereal bowl (as an adult) I’m sure there are times that I’ve been less than grateful for what we have been given.

Blessings and provision don’t always look the way you might expect. I never thought I would be raising my kids in the house where I grew up or that I’d get married in my late 20’s and have 3 boys right out of the gate. Yet that’s where I am right now. Financially and emotionally drained on a daily basis and wondering, “where is my blue bowl?” It’s a funny thing how I get upset when things don’t go my way. Like something is owed to me. No one owes me anything yet I am still bless beyond measure and I find myself whining at the kitchen table ungrateful for what I’ve been given because it doesn’t LOOK like what I expected.

I’m slowly working toward becoming a more grateful person, giving thanks for what I have been given and learning to find the blessings that don’t look exactly like I expected.