Yesterday, I was sitting with Lilli on the sofa, while her brother was napping. We were chatting about everything and nothing, when she started to play with my wedding ring. It’s a diamond solitaire sandwiched between two bands of smaller diamonds.

“Mimmie, can I try on your ring?”

Taking it off, I handed it to her, explaining which finger it went on and why.

Hand out in front of her, so she could admire it like a newly engaged young woman, she said, “Can I have it, Mimmie?”

“No, sweetheart. Mimmie wears that to show that I’m married to Papa. It’s part of my promise to love him forever.”

Still hopeful, she said, “But Mimmie, all I really want is the one in the middle. You can keep the other two.”

I giggled to myself about it all day.

Seriously though, it’s amazing to me how young we humans tend to gravitate toward what appears to be more. Given a choice, we want the biggest, best, and most of any and everything offered to us, and as we grow, it’s so easy to begin to feel we’re entitled to it. We deserve it somehow, just for being fabulous us.

However, that mentality is in direct opposition to everything Jesus taught. “The last shall be first,” He said. “If you want to lead, you must serve,” He said. It’s really not about more for us.

We’re to live low so others can be raised up.

If I’d gotten past the humor of the moment, I could’ve made that whole exchange into a teaching moment, but maybe the lesson was for me.

You, too?

Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.” ~ Matthew 20:26-28 MSG

“And so it is that the last shall be first, and the first, last.” Matthew 20:16 TLB