Think Twice.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where theives break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where theives do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be."
-Matthew 6:19-21

Don't get me wrong, I love my iPod, my cell phone, and all the other uneccessary blessings God had brought into my life. Everyone's got something that you don't need, but is nice to have. I think a lot of the time we take these blessings for granted - and don't realize how lucky we are to have all of these things. But sometimes... we get a little carried away, and can only see what we DON'T have, not what we do have. But the fact is... guys, you don't need that new Element skateboard, and girls don't need that brand new Abercrombie & Fitch fleece hoodie. Trust me. But I do know how it feels to want something you can't have; we all do. Although what you have to remember is that nothing we have here matters. Nothing. I'll say it again. Nothing we have here matters in the end. We live on this earth for a short time, and can't take anyting with us once we're gone. Yet all we worry about is what we don't have? Feeling this way in the first place probably wasn't your fault. In America, we want what we want, and we want it now. Frankly, we're selfish, self-centered, and feel jealous way too easily. But the thing is, just because you felt that way in the first place, doesn't mean you have to continue to feel like that.

Don't turn your thoughts inward, always thinking about what you don't have, but think about the people in other parts of the world, who have absolutely nothing.

The organization called Nothing But Nets is providing children in Africa that are in malaria-prone areas, with mosquito nets to put around their bed when they sleep at night, when mosquitoes are most prone to transmit the disease. The nets cost just $10 dollars, and the risk of people getting malaria goes down by 90%.

Another organization, called Blood:Water Mission, has a program called Forty Days, where people that sign up, don't drink anything but water over the forty days of Lent. They then take the money they would have spent on coffee, pop, what have you, and donate it to Blood:Water. They provide clean drinking water in areas that it is not readily available.

These are both great examples of what you can do to help others. We should always be aware that while we may think we don't have much, we have SO much more than others. Be thankful for what you have, now. It's so much more than the rest of the world.