I want Thomas...

"I want Thomas" said a little 3 or 4 year old boy to me at the bookstore.  "I'm sorry honey, but I am going to buy Thomas, and you can't have him." I said.  "I want Thomas...pleeeeeaaaassse." he said.  "I'm sorry, but I am going to buy this book and you cannot have him." I said to him.   "Well, will you read Thomas to me?" he said.  "Sure." I responded.  So there we sat...Jonathan this little boy and me in the middle of the bookstore floor reading the Thomas the Train book.  If you know me well enough you know that I digest things and analyze things A LOT!  It is VERY hard for me to take things at face value and this situation was like no other. Later that night as I was pondering this moment of that little boy wanting Thomas...I began to think.  Ok, before Jonathan and I got there, he had obviously been there waaaay before us.  He had books all over the table and he was running around with his siblings when we got there.  He did not care to notice that Thomas book, UNTIL it was in my posession and THAT'S when he wanted it.  It was sitting on the shelf just like all the other books, but because he SAW it, he felt he needed it.  I began reading in my devotions that night and I came across Psalm 119:36, "Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness." So then my wheels started turning again.  That little boy was coveting the Thomas book, but how many times I am just like that little boy...wanting 'my Thomas'.  Whether it be a new outfit, a bigger home, a maid,...yea, the list can go on and on...and so could your list!  How often my heart is prone to covetousness and just wanting what I want rather than inclining to God and his testimonies.  I began to think (lol...again) and wondered ok...if I were to give that boy that book, what would he do?  He would take it of course, but then what?  He would have probably flipped through a few pages and then just set it down on the ground or table and forgot about it.  How many 'Thomas books' do we have laying around our house.  The things that we just had to have and even weasled our way into getting them, yet we look at them now...and there they sit...or maybe they are broken, or maybe they were sold at a garage sale.  Whoa!  The Lord was just convicting me left and right about this verse.  I have read Psalm 119 SO MANY times, yet this time the Lord chose this verse to chastise me with.  God knows my heart and many times I have gone to him with....Lord can I have this, (and He says no) and I respond just like that little boy....can i have this...pleeeeaaase.  It is so hard to live in this world with billboards flashing in front of you and commercials saying 'this is the best product you will ever use.'  You are constantly bombarded and hearing you need this and you cant live without that.  You drive by the fancy homes on the lake with the picture perfect backyard and you see their boats lined up in the back and their flowers all neatly in rows.  You see the little happy family all dressed neatly and getting into their new car.  You think, why cant I have this, or that in my home or for my family.  Just like that little boy...Thomas wasnt important to him till I had him...Just like the many things in life...most of the time things are not important till someone else has them...then that's when you want them.  Then you come home, and you see your backyard littered with kids toys, weeds past your ankles and growing through the 'black mat' that was suppose to keep them from growing.  You walk in your house and it is trashed with diapers and baby toys and laundry all over.  You walk into your kitchen with dishes looking like the leaning tower of Pisa.  You go into your living room and you can barely make it to one chair to the next without tripping over a sippy cup or a stuffed animal...or getting stale cheerios stuck to your feet.  And you think...if I only had a maid...if I only had someone to help me clean.  And you began to covet on things that others have...their neat and tidy homes, their nice cars, their fashionable clothes, their spotless kitchen WITH A DISHWASHER....and THEN smack!  the Lord gives you yet another Bible verse to put you back in your place...Hebrews 13:5 "Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be CONTENT with such things as ye have..." ahhh yes, Lord, be content...but its so hard...yet He says we are to INCLINE our heart to his testimonies...the word incline is not something that is easy to do.  Yea, you can RECLINE...you know in that nice chair that just wraps around you and you can relax forever.  But to incline is something that is not comfortable...can you see it? Would you like to sit in my incliner? lol...probably NOT...but think about it to incline to God is something that we have to force ourselves to do because its not in our nature.  We are to incline our heart to God and not to covetousness.  It is easy to incline to covetousness...just like that little boy responding to that Thomas book.  But if we were to incline to God, we would realize as God's word says, we are to "be content with such things as ye have."  I need to stop coveting things that are not mine or things that I wish I could have.  So, do you have any 'Thomas books' you think you NEED in your life?   You may say, oh I don't covet anything, I am content with what I have. OKAY, fine, but I challenge you to take a day and have the Lord reveal to you if you are coveting anything...and I would be SURPRISED if you say there is NOTHING that I covet...whether it be deep in your heart or openly...have God search you...I know I had a lot of things on my heart that needed to be confessed...and God is so good to forgive and help you to incline to him and to be content...


so, what's your 'Thomas' that your coveting?