Needs, Notions, and Nerf Guns
This weekend I took the kids to San Antonio. We had a grand ‘ol time because the kids enjoy going to some of the bigger attractions and mama enjoys going to Costco. We make this trip combo every 1-2 months depending on how much food I brought home on the last Costco trip (in case it’s not obvious yet, we don’t have Costco in Corpus Christi and I’m spoiled from living in places with Costco).
Our Costco trip was a little different this time because we usually do these shopping trips with Chris. These trips typically include two carts, coolers, lots of ice, crabby children and occasionally a crabby parent or two because of said crabby children.
But this time all the toys were out for Christmas. You know what happens to children when Costco puts out all the Christmas toys? They get a case of the “I needs” or it’s milder brother, the “I wants”. In an effort to not get a case of the ‘get over here you don’t need that what are you thinking that’s too expensive we have stuff to do the food is going to melt and be ruined we don’t have all day put that back save up your own money I know I’m mean get off the floor no you’re not going to die ask your grandparents I said put that back no your life is not going to end stop screaming I’ll leave you here It’s not the last one I said get off the floor did you just lick that?’, I walked behind them as they analyzed all toys FOR AN HOUR. Typically my oldest truly analyzes, and the youngest just sees one thing (or nothing at all) and fixates on that. The big-little sees a Nerf gun that’s the size of his little sister. I’m not even sure how a kid hauls that around (and it’s proof that they truly can lift the grocery bags from the car and carry them inside and just don’t want to. Don’t let them fool you, mamas!). Anyway, he got a case of the “I wants”. Before I got a case of the *what I wrote above* I said: “for the price of that gun that you don’t really need, we can feed a kid in Africa for two months. Do you need that gun more than a kid in Africa needs food for two months?”. Silence. “No, I don’t. I can wait and put it on my Christmas list.” (I then did a mental happy mama dance because I didn’t know that was actually going to work).
Note here: I’ve been trying to have conversations with them, take them places, show them movies and books to really open their eyes to the needs of others (Yes, I am actively brainwashing them into being bleeding hearts). We talk about Jesus and how he wants us to care for others and the whole deal with the ‘least of these’.
4 hours later, two rounds through the register, some prayer, and large cups of ice cream, we were done and heading home.
The kids immediately fell asleep, which for moms means we get to listen to whatever music we want and actually process a complete thought.
I thought back to the toys at Costco and how my kid walked away from the Nerf gun so we could send the money to a kid in need (of course he made sure I wasn’t going to forget to send the money since he was sacrificing that toy- and this morning he asked if I had done it. He doesn’t forget anything). It made me smile.
A couple weeks ago *one of* my favorite perfumes ran out. I went online to replace it and noticed the price for a small bottle. Sheesh! That was expensive! But this time I thought about how I could send that money to someone else and fulfill their needs instead of getting that perfume that I didn’t really need. A cheaper one would do just fine. You see, I recently read that the US and Europe spend more money on perfume annually ($12 billion) then it would cost to provide clean water for all global citizens ($9 billion). 1
I found myself at Costco looking at food and thinking, “How many people can I easily feed with this meal so I can host more dinner gatherings?”
I thought about this purse that I got a case of the ‘I wants’ for months ago. I could march in to my local grocery store and feed a family for four months for the same price as that bag which basically just carries my junk around. I think feeding a family would hold a whole lot more eternal value than some leather with a designer’s name slapped on the side of it.
And then there was the TV. You’ve heard me talk about the TV. The realtor was coming to take some pictures of the house and we didn’t know what to do about the large paperweight we had in the dinning room. So, we put it back in the living room so she could get pictures. It went something like this:
Person 1: ‘Wow, that’s really big.’
Person 2: ‘That’s just really gaudy!’
Person 3: ‘It’s so big I feel like it’s staring into my soul’
Then we all started laughing because just a few months ago we thought we were gonna straight die because we had to use a smaller TV for a while.
I smiled in the car. I smiled because we were changing and didn’t even know it. I smiled because it didn’t even hurt. I smiled because our priorities were changing into something more similar to what I hoped life would look like. This craziness was actually starting to work.
So I pray. I pray that our hearts will continue to think of others when we spend our money and time. I pray that my family’s hearts will continue to change and closer mimic the mind of Jesus and his heart for the world. I pray that God will continue to place the burden on our hearts and continue to open my eyes to see people how he sees them.
Martin Luther King Jr said, “The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop and help this man, what will happen to me?’ But the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’”
I want to be the one that stops.
1. “The State of Human Development,” United Nations Human Development Report 1998, chapter 1, 37.
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