'What you have is better than what you don't have': Life lesson from my 10-year old son

We wanted to encourage our kids to save up for a PSP(Play Station Portable) instead of telling them outright that we would not buy them one. We told them, if they wanted one, they should save up for it. So last Christmas my two kids emptied their piggy banks and put their money together to start the ball rolling. They were able to come up with around P1000(US$21). My younger son was so discouraged that they had to save P13,000(US$278) more (the PSP in the department store was P14,000-around US$299). But we told them it would take a year or so of saving so they could buy the PSP. He was really determined to raise the money. He even bargained with me to contribute P100(US$2.14) a week to their PSP fund. My sister Donna even gave a birthday gift to my younger son that went to the PSP fund.

Then one day my younger son told me as we arrived home from school , "Mommy, I don't want us to buy a PSP anymore."

I said, "Really? Why?"

He explained that they had class "devotions"(Bible study and prayer) that morning and that their teacher shared with them during devotions time that "what you have is better than what you don't have."

He told me, with a smile on his face and with no hint of sadness, "Mommy, we already have a Game Boy, so since what we have is better than what we don't have, I don't want us to buy the PSP anymore. Let's just buy new cartridges for the Game Boy. Then just put the money we had saved in the bank."

I was pleasantly surprised and relieved at the same time, but most of all, it also showed me how God, through the teacher, taught my son to overcome covetousness(the controlling desire for something you don't have but want so badly) and greed, to distinguish between needs and wants and to be content with what one has. His happiness didn't hinge on getting the PSP. He was happy even if he wouldn't have one anymore.

There is nothing wrong at all if your kids have a PSP or if you bought them one. What I'm trying to say in this note is that my son taught me a valuable lesson on contentment and covetousness.

In Luke 12:15, the Lord Jesus said:
"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."