Every Good Gift

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17

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I complain about school a lot. If given the choice between going to school and staying home, I would choose to stay home. I hate school. High school was not made with me in mind. I haven't had the ideal high school experience. I have felt like an outcast because I don't attend parties and I don't do illegal things. I stay at home most nights (when there aren't school sports going on) and watch tv or do homework. I'll watch old movies or just go to sleep. 

But, there was something on the news today that struck me hard. 
When did I become such a spoiled brat?

• If you woke up this morning healthy--you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the fear of and loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pain of starvation--you are better off than 500 million people in the world.

• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are more comfortable than 75% of the people in this world.

• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace--you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

• If you can read this, you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world who can't read at all.

Yet here I am complaining about having to get up in the morning!

Recently, over 300 girls were abducted from their schools in Nigeria by terrorists. These girls are meant to be sold into slavery or to be married. They are forced to convert to Islam, even though they are Christian. Tonight on the news, they were reporting about this and they showed girls on there that hadn't been abducted. These girls are just as likely to be taken from their homes and schools but they continued to go to school. They don't have to go to school, they want to go to school. They want to be educated so they can have a better life and build a better country. 

God has blessed me with a wonderful life, and access to a free education that people all over the world would kill for. Yet, I'm here in the greatest country in the world complaining because I have to study for a test or do homework. When did we as a generation forget that we are truly blessed to live where we live and have access to things that some people can only dream about? Consider this:

God has blessed me with so many thing that I take for granted; my family, my health, my education. But, I don't thank Him for it. When I say my prayers I'm not giving the glory to Him and thanking Him for all that He has done for me, I'm asking for Him to give me stuff. "God give me a boyfriend. Give me lots and lots and lots of money. God, make me thinner. Make me prettier." I don't thank Him for making me the way I am, or giving me the head on my shoulders. So what I guess I'm trying to get at here, is maybe we as not only a generation, but as a people need to start being thankful for what we have and start helping out those less fortunate.