Annoyed by blessings? Let me explain. As I pulled one item after another out of the dryer I felt annoyed. Laundry seems endless and futile at times. I know I am washing, sorting, and folding just so I can repeat the process next week:
30 shirts
20 pairs of socks
7 pairs of pants
2 Leotards
16 pairs of shorts
20 pairs of underwear
2 pairs of pajamas
And this is just the laundry for my 3 kids for 1 week. Not to mention my laundry and the other laundry necessary in for a home. It is never ending. I try to spread out the laundry, but inevitably I start to wash one child’s laundry and each of them bring me their laundry baskets telling me they too are out of a much needed article of clothing. Washing, Shorting, folding and hanging. It’s monotonous, but necessary.
And then it hit me – I am annoyed with my blessings.
My kids are all clothed head to toe in nice cloths. Albeit many of them have mended holes from our latest family addition – the puppy, but nonetheless they have nice cloths. Not designer cloths, but nice cloths.
They are all warm. Their needs are being met.
I was convicted that so many in the world don’t have this blessing. Many a mother longs for and would relish a laundry day for their children like I have for mine. Shouldn’t my heart be overflowing with gratitude for our laundry?
Which made me think –
How often do we see blessings in our lives as an outright annoyance?
Cooking dinner. Working. Carpool. Activities. A house filled with constant noise and activity.
It was enough to make me pause, evaluate, and honestly feel convicted. So much of what can oftentimes annoys us is what we have longed and even prayed for. How frustrating it must be for God who blesses us so abundantly. What he intends to produce a heart of gratitude actually produces discontent and annoyance. No wonder being grateful is mentioned 157 times in the Bible.*
I am reminded of the Israelites in the Old Testament as they wandered in the desert. They complained that Moses and God had brought them out of Egypt to starve to death in the desert (Exodus 16:3). So God made food literally rain from heaven on a daily basis – manna.
Did this make the Israelites happy? Nope! They got sick of the manna and demanded meat, although in their defense they had been eating manna for 40 straight years. So God made quail rain from heaven for an entire month (Numbers 11:20).
But the Israelites displeased God. It was not their request that was offensive to God, but their attitudes. It is so easy to look judgingly from the outside at the Israelites, until we pause and look at our own hearts.
Just like the Israelites we can easily overlook and become discontent with our blessings. We need reminders to be grateful, because we can so easily lose sight of the blessings in our lives. So the next time we find ourselves annoyed with blessings in our life, even laundry, may we pause and use it as an opportunity to look at our hearts and refocus on gratitude. Even laundry can be a divine invitation to encounter God in our day–to–day.
*Gratitude In The Bible – Key Verses and How To Apply Them. MARCH 8, 2021. https://gentlechristianparenting.com/gratitude/Gratitude In The Bible – Key Verses and How To Apply Them – Gentle Christian Parenting