As a child I would dream of having certain things that I wanted. I was so happy and excited when Dad got me a pony. What a dream come true. Dad bought it, provided it with hay, grain, pasture and shelter in the barn. I had no idea what it cost my Dad to purchase and keep that pony. I thought that my job of feeding it was all there was to keeping a pony. I loved that pony and never experienced the feeling of wishing that I did not have it. My excitement was renewed every time I even looked at it.

However, as I think back on my adult life, I see many times that I worked hard to acquire something to later wish that I didn’t have it because I was working harder to keep it than I did to get it.

The maintenance, payment, or just the storing of it became an issue. I would then think back to the excitement that I had in getting the thing and wonder; what was I doing? Other times I actually could not keep what I had worked hard for because the price to keep it was greater than I could afford.

There is a story that after the Continental Congress had drafted our constitution, a young man asked Benjamin Franklin if they had given us a monarchy or a republic. Franklin answered him; “We have given you a Republic but it remains to be seen if you can keep it.”

My Dad always told me that it is easier to get something than it is to keep it. People with life experience realize that possessions cost something to get and they cost something to keep. The difference between my possessions as a child and my possessions as an adult was that as a child I had a father that paid the price to purchase and keep them. What if as an adult we had a Father that paid the price for our happiness and then provided a way that we could keep it? What if all we had to do was to accept, love and enjoy what he had provided for us?

These and other life questions will be addressed Sunday morning as “The Gathering Place Family” meets in the Washington Junior High School Library for Bible Study at 9:30 and in the gymnasium at 10 a.m. for our Pre-Service Connection where we enjoy coffee, juice and donuts. Our Worship Service and Children’s Church then begins at 10:30. Come at 7 p.m. and be part of our Wednesday night Bible Study and Children’s Ministry on the third floor above Trends at 120 W. Court St. in Washington Court House.