"Wii" Versus God

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things.”
-Philippians 4:8 (NIV)


My wife and I recently started giving our boys a weekly allowance and with it came an envelope system (thanks Dave Ramsey). The envelope system consists of three envelopes; one for spending, one for saving, and one for giving. The spending envelope is for little wants that come up from time to time and are not very
expensive. The saving envelope is for something that they might want but costs a lot and therefore has to be saved up for. The giving envelope is for putting into the offering bucket, either on a Sunday morning or a Wednesday night.

Matthew is using his saving envelope to save up for a “Wii" game system. He wants it specifically to play a game called “Mario Cart”. Ever since we started the envelope system and explained to him what the saving one was for, he has talked non-stop about “Wii” and “Mario Cart”. One morning as we were having breakfast,
Matthew made the statement: “I just can’t stop thinking about the ‘Wii’ game.” In response Jonathan rolled his eyes and made an intelligent statement that I believe was far beyond his 5 years: “Matthew…don’t think about ‘Wii’… think about God!” Wow! I wish I had said that!


Jonathan was talking about the game system: “Wii”…but he could just as well have been talking about “we”… as in us humans. A lot of times we tend to think about what we want and what we feel, rather than what God wants and God feels. It is okay to want things. And it is okay to have things. God wants us to have things. He just doesn’t want those things to have us. How do you know if your thing has you? Simple. Ask yourself a few questions:

How much time do I spend with that thing?
How much time do I spend with God?
How long do I spend reading the thing’s instruction manual?
How long do I spend reading The Manual …the Bible?
How long do I spend talking about that thing?
How long do I spend talking to God?

If the answer to those questions shows that you have been spending more time reading and talking about a thing… than you have been reading and talking about the giver of things…then that thing has you. Does that make sense? Something to think about.