Psalm 100:3

“we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

A few months ago, Graham reached that age where his new favorite word is “MINE!” He doesn’t ever say it in compassion, or even in a question form. Rather, he spits it out like he and I are about to fight…and fight we do. (I always win) I sometimes find it ironic that he lives in the house I pay the mortgage for, under the roof I got a loan on, eats the food that Amber makes on plates that I bought, and sleeps in a bed that I carried up the stairs to his bedroom, yet finds the nerve to tell me that from his perspective most everything around him is in his own words, “MINE!”
Nope. It’s not. It never has been. And no matter how convincing he tries to be, or how much like the seagulls on Finding Nemo he sounds, I am still completely unconvinced that the hammer I am trying to work with is actually Graham’s. So, I then have the hard parenting task of focus shifting. Day in and day out, Amber and I train and hone his little mind to understand the truth – He is not the master of the world, just one of it’s mere inhabitants. And whenever he hollers a “MINE!” and tries in vain to yank something out of my gorilla hands, I lovingly remind him that in fact it is not his.
The Psalmist does the focus shifting here in Psalm 100:3. For those of us who would revel in all of our accomplishments, he reminds us that there is actually an ownership structure beyond us. At times we feel like we own everything around us, but let’s just get down to the facts. He created everything. He is in charge of everything. He is Provider of all things good, and ultimately He is the owner of all things. We are HIS people, and we exist in HIS pasture. Perhaps today you need to shift your focus from the stuff-grabbing, “MINE” lifestyle. Perhaps today you need to see the true Owner of all things. With the proper focus of Who owns all things, maybe you will strive to hold His stuff a little better. Maybe you will use it to accomplish more of His desires and less of your own.

Food For Thought: Who owns all things? Do you live like this is a reality?