"Mom! Did you know Cain killed Abel over broccoli?"

Leave it to my son to teach me to dig deeper in a childhood classic of the bible stories... I thought to myself, just why did Cain kill Abel? Of course over the years, I had forgotten why. If you read in Genesis 4, you find out Cain and Abel both brought offerings to the Lord. Since Cain brought offerings from the soil (which could had been broccoli), he didn't feel like his offering was as good as that of what Abel gave. There begins jealousy. Even God warned Cain against his anger. Yet in a 5 year old way - "Cain got a jaw bone to a donkey and got as mad as the HULK and hit Abel in the head and it killed him."
Later I was asked did God forgive Cain. Thankfully I had time to look up the story myself to read ahead to see what happened to Cain. He said that his teachers couldn't answer his question and told him that God has a good heart. I told him that since he did something very bad, God punished him and he had a very hard life; however, the Bible doesn't tell us what finally happened to Cain. I was then able to share with him how we have to ask God for forgiveness when we do something wrong.

Then as I thought about the story.. I thought.. how many times to do we see God showing favor to those around us, and we sit and think we don't receive as much favor... then our thoughts turn to jealosy, when we think we need as good of a life. It is hard at times to just focus on life and not look at those around us, but we need to focus on the good of our life and be thankful for what God has blessed us with. When we show God we are thankful for what we have... we can be blessed with more - something I often tell my children about their toys, etc.. Be thankful for what you have or you won't be getting anything else... How many times does God want to tell us that?

The other night he also showed me this knight outfit and how he really wanted it to have this certain sword. I told him he had a knight outfit almost just like that. He said he really needed that one. He could put on the Whole Armor of God, if he had that one! I had to laugh and think that my child just related his toy need to scripture. ha!