God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest. ~J.G. Holland
OK, let's set the scene. There's a family of squirrels in your yard. They have furry little bodies and they run around frantically up and down trees and in the grass and leaves. They check out the bird feeders and they dig around in the yard. When the Dad and/or Mom squirrel doesn't feel like busting their heinies all day for nuts and seeds, the handout squirrel stops by their nest with a free bag of nuts so the baby squirrels won't starve. The handout squirrel also sets up delivery for more bags of nuts, to be delivered each month.
Mom and Dad squirrel are siked. Now they can freely jump from branch to branch and watch the other squirrels being frantic. Mom and Dad get a little chubby. A little more lazy. Their nest falls apart and they find someone else to fix it. Baby squirrels need help learning how to find nuts and Mom and Dad send them to squirrel school. Mom and Dad have it good. Baby squirrels, not so much.
Alright, I know this is silly. Squirrels don't have a handout squirrel. Let's think about it for a second though. What if they did? (Eating from our bird feeders doesn't count...that's fair game in finding food as far as they are concerned.)
Bottom line with humans is that we are animals. Smart animals! Smarter than a squirrel, at least. So why, when we don't feel like working hard, do we seek out the handout squirrel? Why doesn't someone tell the human..."Tough crap, dude! Get to work!" Now, before a bunch of you have a cow, I am not suggesting that we will never fall on hard times that are out of our control. Nor am I suggesting that a handicapped person be expected to do more than they are capable of. What I am suggesting is that when put up against a tough time, use your brain, your body and your time to figure it out.
I'm not very good at quoting the Bible, but there is a verse somewhere in there that says that when you put your faith in God, things will often times get worse before they get better. The beauty of this is that being uncomfortable forces most of us to change things. If you sit on a pine cone, you're probably not going to stay there, right? Same with hardship. When we find ourselves in a difficult situation, the best thing to do is to try to make it better, with faith in God and in yourself. God never said, when things get tough, sit back and watch TV.
This is my lesson for you. We ALL find ourselves out of money or out of food at one point in our lives. If someone tells you they haven't struggled and they've found success without failure, they are lying. Tough times should be looked at as opportunities for growth. They should be viewed as life lessons. They should not be viewed as an opportunity to seek a handout.
Take a lesson from the animal world. It is unlikely that a Mom or Dad will let their babies starve, they will work harder and longer and be more creative. I bet, that without public assistance, we would not let our babies starve either. We might be feeding them rice and beans, but parents wouldn't sit and watch TV with a starving child in front of them. Unless they are mentally sick, in which case, this doesn't apply and they shouldn't have children anyway.
Sometimes, family and friends want to help each other out and I think that is great...what goes around come around. In many cases, the receiver will understand how wonderful it is to receive and will possibly become the giver later in life. The problem I see and want you to avoid is the sense of entitlement that so many people seem to have. You are not entitled to the money your neighbor has earned, but if the neighbor see's your pain and chooses to help, that's gracious.
- Don't expect life to be easy.
- Don't expect someone else to fix things when they're broken.
- Don't expect a paycheck when you don't work.
- Don't expect success without hard work.
- Don't feel entitled to things you didn't earn.
The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving. Albert Einstein
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