G

When I was a little girl, I remember watching the television game show “The Price is Right.” Oh, the array of prizes!

From the latest kitchen appliances to exciting vacations to shiny new cars, I wished for a turn to play one of the guessing games or to spin that big wheel.

One game offered contestants a chance to choose between a few prizes concealed behind screens, boxes or doors.

A wonderful prize waited hidden on that stage, but side by side, also hidden, were a mediocre and a dud prize. I always thought it’d be tough to have to play that game.

Which door to choose? How thrilling to luckily select the grand prize … but how awful to be sent home full of regret after the final reveal, dud in hand.

Life is full of offers, and we sure like to choose.

Am I in the mood for this combo meal or that one today? After all, we’ve grown up hearing we can “have it our way.” (This is the real crave, isn’t it?)

Our 1-year-old grandson has already figured out from his high chair that he can hold out for a better offer. The bites he’s presented with interest him only until he sees someone else bring their plate to the table.

Admittedly, there’s a world of curiosity and learning going on in this little guy’s mind – and palette. But it appears “the grass is greener” thinking sure starts early.

He’s even taken note of his family’s habit of reaching for a little something sweet after a meal. He waits and watches like a baby hawk, insisting on his share of the good stuff.

If you’ve raised children, you know their appetites can be fickle. They may love corn, for example, this month but not touch it a little later. The same holds true for the toy box.

Perhaps we train them not to be content but to watch for whatever will come next.

If the current toy-box selection doesn’t bring enthusiasm, we search for the latest, high-review offerings we can have quickly shipped to our doorstep.

But as I watch our little one explore and play outside on a recent pretty spring day, I’m again reminded of his desire to simply learn about what surrounds him and somehow find his place doing, helping and being a part of things.

Perhaps this second time around for me being involved in “training up a child in the way he should go” is making me think a little more about what we’re really teaching and rewarding … and unintended consequences.

In a world where so many abandon relationships in favor of what they view as greener, better offers, how can we sow seeds of contentment rather than discontentment?

Soon, we’ll be helping teach our little grandson to count. I want him to grow up counting blessings, not things.

As I watched him toddling around, little broom in one hand, a yellow dandelion bloom in the other, his wispy baby hair blowing in the breeze, I flashed back to an old Super 8 movie clip my mom and dad have of me at the same age.

Wearing a simple short dress and bloomers, I had that same sweet inexperienced yet excited walk as I proudly carried colored eggs my mama had dyed and hidden in the spring foliage by our front sidewalk. As I recognized the resemblance, I smiled.

Yes, Easter is coming again.

No matter our age, may we remember with all the colors of grass available to line our baskets these days, and also remember that of all the things with which we may be tempted to stuff them, choosing Jesus as our personal savior is the grand prize. All the other fluffy or glossy choices are mediocre at best.

I don’t know about you, but I’m relieved not to have to play that guessing game. The curtain has been pulled back. The stone has been rolled away. And the tomb is empty.

Hallelujah and thanks be to God!

This Easter as we’re toddling around “on the hunt,” let us remember to choose wisely and avoid regret. After all, through Jesus, there is no better offer!

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” – Romans 10:9-10

Gina Moore, a news-editorial journalism major, has operated Marketplace Consignment Sale for 27 years and has worked part-time at Treasures. She also enjoys country cooking, reading and writing about motherhood, life on the farm and how God’s love and lessons surround residents.