Praise The Builder Not The Hammer

    I was at the park Saturday with my girls. My youngest Madison (Maddie) is two and a half and fearless. At this particular park there is a really big slide that Maddie desperately wanted to slide down, but she realized quickly that she could not climb up the ladder by herself to get to the slide. So, she called out to me "Mom, help! I went over and helped her climb up the ladder so she could get to the slide. Once I helped her up I was expecting her to say something like this... "You are amazing Mom! I never could have done this without your help, thank you!" (okay, so maybe my expectations were a little high) But that is not what happened, instead she yelled out "I did it!!" And as I walked away laughing a thought popped in my head, "How often do we do that to God?"

    How often do we give God's credit to something or someone else? We may not even realize we do it. It may look something like this....You pray for God to keep your kids healthy and safe and he does. But instead of giving Him the praise we give the praise to vitamins and hand sanitizer.  (I am guilty)
  
    It would be like if Adam went out and built me an amazing new book shelf and he used a hammer. And when I came out to see the bookshelf he built all I could say is "WOW! that must have been one amazing Hammer! Thank you Hammer!" And I gave all the credit to the hammer he used and not to him, the one who built it. It is so easy to give credit to the tools God uses every day in our lives and completely forget to give God the praise for giving us those tools.
  
    My chalange to all of us today is to see God through the tools he uses everyday in our life.  Are your kids healthy because of medicine? Thank God for the Medicine. Are you financially taken care of because of your Job? Thank God for your Job. Did you wake up this morning feeling cruddy so you drank an amazing cup of coffee and instantly felt better? Thank God for creating coffee! =) whatever it may be, today remember to thank the One who gives us all good things.