Catholic Dads

Those Ungrateful Little….

May 17th, 2010

I’m a Dad…with 5 children. I was thinking the other day about how ungrateful my children are for the all the things their mother and I do for them. I work very hard to put food on the table and a roof over their head. I pay entirely too much money for my son to play baseball and my daughter to take pottery classes. My kids have everything they need and some of the things that they want. Are they grateful for all I do? No. They just ask for more.

My wife, well, she works even harder than I do. She educates them (we home school). She prepares the meals, cleans the toilets, scrubs the floors, washes the clothes, makes sure the baby has a clean diaper….I could go on endlessly listing all the things that she does for our kids, and me. Do our kids even show one bit of gratitude for all that she does for them? No. They just keep asking for more.

Reflecting on this lack of gratitude brought to mind a couple of different things. First of all, am I grateful? Am I grateful for all that my wife does for me and our family? Yes. Do I show it to her? No. I tend to take all that she does for granted. More importantly, am I grateful for all that my Heavenly Father does for me? I’d like to say yes, but I’m not. My words, my actions say otherwise. I take all that God does for me for granted. I don’t take the time to thank Him for providing me with, well, EVERYTHING. God has provided me with my job, my house, my food, my very life….I could go on endlessly listing all the things He does for me. Yet, I don’t thank Him enough. My actions, my sin, tells Him that I am not grateful for all He does for me.

I’ve often wondered if God sits up in heaven saying, “Those ungrateful little…”? Of course, the answer is that He doesn’t. He just loves. He loves us for who we are. It is through His love for us that we have all that we have, just as it is through my love for my children that they have all that they have. His love is perfect. It gives without any expectation of return. I need to be more like that. I need to love my children without expecting anything in return. I also need to be grateful to God, my Father, for all He does for me. My words, my actions, need to reflect that gratitude.

(cross-posted at Salvation Is An Adventure)

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