A father once took his whole family out to eat at a fast food restaurant. As the meal progressed, the father, who had already eaten all of his fries, reached over for one of his son’s fries. This did not please the young fellow. He put his arms out to protect his food and exclaimed, “Hands off my fries!”

The son had forgotten that it was his father who had paid for the fries. And he didn’t realize that his father had enough money to buy him all the fries he could possibly eat, and that his father was more than willing to pay for more food if his son was still hungry.

Sometimes God’s children behave the same way. When God asks for a small part of what he has blessed us with, we say, “Hands off!” We forget who gave us these blessings in the first place. We lose sight of the fact that he can open up the floodgates of heaven and pour into our lives more blessings than we could possibly imagine.

Let’s try to keep sight of the fact that we have a Father who provides.

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”—Matthew 7:11.