Ditching the Gimmie Attitude
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. – Philippians 2:3
In today’s day and age one of the main mindsets of America is the “gimmie attitude” What do I mean by this? Well if you have children, you probably already know. From the time we’re small children we can see this attitude rearing it’s ugly head in the form of, “I want that!” or “gimmie that toy, it’s MINE!” *cue grabbing/pushing/shoving for said toy* The biggest problem is that this attitude continues into adulthood, seeping through all parts of life, even into the church!
It takes a different form of course–from the playgroup toy snatching it turns into men figuratively pushing/shoving/and climbing over each other to get ahead in the company. For women it takes the form of gossip and slander, false nicety and congratulations in Facebook comments to turn around and message a different “friend”, “Oh my *word* did you just see that so and so got married *again*???” All just the same forms of pushing and shoving-belittling other people in order to vaunt yourself up, to get what you want. It’s all just forms of strife and vainglory. We scold our children (hopefully!!!) for such behave, then turn around and exhibit it ourselves in far more vicious forms.
Yes, even in the church this behavior is seen all the time. Our fast paced mindset when we go into anything is, “What does this have to offer to me and my family?” Many families will rather not go to church because “well there are no other young couples our age there so we don’t feel comfortable” or “there are not enough programs” or “the music just is boring and not up to date.” Many Christians don’t go to church faithfully, or attend just once on Sunday morning, once in a while, because unless they’re truly entertained by what they’re seeing and hearing, they don’t figure it’s worth their time. When in the Bible do you ever see Jesus looking to be entertained? When did he ever decide not to do something because it wasn’t going to be that much fun? Isn’t he supposed to be our example through life? It’s time for us all to have a wake up call, instead of wanting to be catered to we should be the ones jumping in and helping out! Instead of the “what can I get?” attitude we should develop a “what can I do to help?” attitude.
Then we will truly be living out this Bible verse!
Copyright © Nicole Elliott, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved