Our oldest son reached a milestone in his third-grade advanced reading course. As a reward, he asked for the entire set of Diary of a Wimpy Kid books—17 books to be exact. He was the happiest camper until a week later when he said to me, “Dad, what would really make me happy is the complete set of Big Nate books.” 

My reaction? I was angry, not at my son for his lack of contentment but at myself. How was I modeling contentment? Our 48-inch mower isn’t big enough; we need the 52-inch deck. My cell phone doesn’t have the three cameras; it only has two.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:6-10).

It’s not wrong to want or even have nice things. The problem begins when wanting nice things becomes more important than God. Practice being grateful to him for what you have. As a friend once reminded me, it’s hard to be thankful and angry at the same time.