The Secret of Contentment

Dearest Readers, (I know you are out there because the sitemeter keeps telling me you are there!)

There is not a day that goes by without me giving heartfelt thanks to the Father for the truly wonderful blessings I enjoy; my husband, my children, my teaching job at a wonderful Christian school, my health, and my home.

Why is it then that I insist, from time to time, on traveling down the path of discontentment? It begins so subtly, I see something nice I’d like to bring home. Then the discontentment begins to grow: I imagine re-arranging my furniture to accommodate it. Soon I realize that by bringing in a new color, it will accentuate how out of date my end tables are. So I calculate the cost of new end tables.

My discontentment starts to spin out of control because next I think it would be a shame to spend all that money on new end tables when, really, I’ve had the couch for much longer! Before I know it, I’ve got myself all worked up over the atrocious state of my living room, forgetting that just yesterday it was the peaceful place of retreat and prayer I was so thankful for!

What happened? I took the first step down the path of discontentment the moment I began to believe I needed something more.

You mean something more than what you already have?

No, I mean something more than Jesus.

When we believe we need something more than Jesus we are putting ourselves in a very precarious situation. On one hand, if we don’t have it and believe we need it then we are calling God a liar:

He says he will meet all our needs – we say we need that new rocker-recliner. Clearly, we don’t have it. Does that make God a liar?

Absolutely not, God isn’t a liar. And He isn’t Santa Claus either – contrary to what some may think, you can’t just sit on his knee and “name it and claim it”.

Readers, don't let discontentment get a hold on you! Just keep cultivating that attitude of gratitude we talked about last week!

Keep coming back, keep reading, and keep sharing this blog!

Blessings!