So...You've Felt Cheap Before?

A newly, married husband, madly in love with his bride, generously spends hundred of dollars on his wife’s presents on their first Christmas together, getting her everything she wanted. There are no wrapped presents under the tree, for the husband, until the night before Christmas. Christmas morning gifts are unwrapped. The husband found two addressed to him, which his wife found on sale the day before, because she didn’t have time to make a purchase and she didn’t have any money. The wife had $5,000 in the bank; neither did she work. Needless to say, the husband neither wanted nor needed his two, cheap $20 gifts.

A minister was called upon to conduct the funeral services of a woman who had been like a second mother to him. He flew 700 miles at his own expense, and paid for his own incidentals. The minister was more than glad to perform the difficult and painful ceremony The family could not find it within themselves even after a year following the funeral to send a simple thank you note to the man who had been like a son to the woman he paid tribute to.

The mother of a son told him often how much she loved him. Yet something was missing. What the son really wanted was not for the mother to write checks and buy him “stuff.’ What the son told his mother many times was that he only wanted her to listen. Despite repeated attempts the son gave up shortly before his mother’s death and told her, “You will die never having known me.” “Why is that?’ the mother questioned. “You never listened.” The mother died at 74. The son was 50. The mother still doesn't know her son.

A business owner offers a client $10,000 plus all expenses paid for seven days work. This is five times the normal amount of payment the client would have received for the same amount of work. The client was asked to telephone or email the next day to make the arrangements for a one hour meeting, before proceeding. The potential client never even had the decency to follow up, despite their desperate need for the money and verbal agreement to the work requested.

I can tell you story after story of those people who seem to feel the path of least resistance, or the easy way in life is the best and only way and the right way, and those of us who believe in taking the high road wind up becoming their targets. We were created in the image of God to give Him glory and we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Yet…there are some people who just don’t have a clue what we do for them and more so, don’t care what your heart and mind are all about. There will always be masses of “TAKERS’ out there who have no true appreciation for what we do for them, nor does the meaning of the word “gratitude” even compute.

Be on guard for those who want to make you feel cheap. Stay away from dream killers, dream, discouragers, dream distracters, dream disappointers, dream disillusioners, dream disbelievers, dream, deceivers, and dream distorters. They’re not a dime a dozen…there a penny a dozen. Keep your boundaries set firm. God never intended for you to go through life feeling cheap. You’re not a doormat, so stop trying to accommodate dirty shoes. Tell your visitors to leave them outside your door, if they expect to pay you a visit. Ungracious people should be entitled to nothing except a lesson on growing up. You just might be able to help get them started. “Cast not your pearls before swine.” (Matthew 7:6)

David Hammock. Copyright © 2008. All Rights Reserved.