The lesson I learned while eating goldfish...

Today as the boys and I were eating a snack as we do several times a day I learned a valuable lesson. After giving G the small bowl of fishies I asked him to please share with B because it's nice to share and B would really appreciate it. G was happy to share with me, giving me handfuls at a time. But for some reason he wouldn't share with B at all. I asked him a few more times to please share his fishies with B... but with no luck. Towards the end of his bowl of goldfish I warned him that if he couldn't share, he probably wouldn't get any more fishies in his bowl (we usually go back for seconds and thirds :). After eating a few more fish and thinking about that consequence, he decided to share a few fishies with B. Seeing this made me so happy and I really wanted to give G some more fishies so I could watch him share with B.

So you may be wondering what I learned... I learned that Heavenly Father probably feels the same way towards us. He gives us so many blessings that I could never name them all and I'm sure that he wants so badly for us to share what we have with those that are less fortunate, with those that would truly appreciate it - because it's nice to share. When we don't share what we do have, Heavenly Father probably feels less inclined to keep pouring out those blessings upon us just as I didn't really want to give G any more fishies if he wasn't going to share with B. But when we do share with a happy heart and unrestrained, Heavenly Father would find great joy in continuing the blessings knowing that we are willing to use them to bless others. In fact, I believe we can have sincere faith and even knowledge that as we share what we have He will always bless us with that which we need. The parable of the talents from the scriptures came to life for me today as I learned about the parable of the goldfish.