Basketball Lessons

The other day my son made some "not so wise" choices.  It was around his birthday.  He and I had sat on the couch the night before flipping through an Eastbay catalog to pick out the basketball shoes that would make him play just like Michael Jordan.  He was so excited!  I was excited!  One of my first loves is cool tennis shoes (thanks Dad).  We talked about the shoes and how we would place the order on the Internet together the next night.  In between that glorious night of looking at hundreds of pairs of tennis shoes and the next evening when we were supposed to order the shoes, Kuyler failed to complete some school work and received a poor report.  Bad timing for him.  My husband explained to him the Scriptural that you must work in order to "eat"--or in this case, order tennis shoes.  He dropped the amount of money he could spend on the shoes to an amount that would not cover the awesome Michael Jordan shoes.  Kuyler cried.  I cried.  I was just as excited as Kuyler to order the shoes, but I knew my husband was right.  Once the consequences had been delivered, my husband looked at me and asked me if I understood the consequences as well--can't imagine why???  ;)  Kuyler was heart broken.  On the way to school the next morning, he cried.  He also asked for forgiveness and said he was sorry.  My forgiveness was readily available to him.  I called my husband to tell him about the conversation.  My husband told me that what was hard for him was that he was going to pick him up from school and buy him a new basketball and now that was having to be put on hold as well.  Kuyler didn't even know about the blessing he was missing out on with the basketball.  My mind immediately went to my life.  I wonder how many times God has blessings waiting for me that I am not even aware of and because of my sin, I miss out.  Abundant life.  I want to live my life in obedience so that the blessings God has for me can poured out on me.  Oh they may not be material--and probably most aren't--but the blessing of peace, joy, provision, answered prayer, fellowship--how long is the list of blessings that God has  waiting for us if we will just walk in obedience to Him.