"That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Titus 2:4-5

Monday, January 30, 2012

Contentment


Are you content?  What is contentment?

Defintion of content: satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.

I'm wondering how many people can say that they are truly content.  I know I struggle with it.  I've found that as long as I keep my eyes on Jesus and what things He has given me in this life, and have an attitude of thankfulness, I am content.  But, what usually happens is that my eyes go elsewhere.  I start looking at other people and envy sets in.  Not in a huge way, but it creeps in subtley.

Many of you know I struggle with being satisfied with the house I live in (by the way, thank you so much to everyone who called my home beautiful on a recent post...that brightened my day!).  I'm FINE...as long as I just look at all that I love about the house, and thank God for it.  As soon as I start comparing with other people, well....of course I won't be content anymore, because the fact of the matter is that most people who live in this area have nice new houses!  The key is thankfulness for what we individually have.

I also do this with the amount of children I have, and I KNOW that is not a good thing, but I bet this happens to many of you also, and this just shows how much a spirit of discontentment can creep in.  One second, I'm looking at someone with a baby and being jealous that I don't have one, or that I'm not pregnant.  The next second, I'm looking at someone who has already raised all their kids, and I'm jealous of all their free time.  Next I'm jealous of the woman who has 9 kids, and I have 4....and on and on and on.

By the way, that topic brings up another issue I've had concerns with along the lines of contentment.  When we surrender our childbearing to the Lord, it goes both ways.  What I mean is, not only are we saying we are willing to bear as many children as He calls us to, we also NEED to be saying that we will be content with however many children He wants to give us.  I was a little disturbed when I read a post by a blogger that I love and respect, who was saying that we should be telling God, "more babies!  Give me more babies!"  Yes, we need to be open and willing to have more babies, and even excited to have them.  But careful!--even this can move into greed and discontentment!  We should be saying, "Your will, Lord...whatever you give me I will accept and be happy with".  His will for you might not include more babies.  With this we should be content.

I am not my neighbor, and my neighbor isn't me.  God gives each of us what He chooses.  There's a reason why God put "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's stuff "(paraphrased!) in the ten commandments.

"And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content." 1 Timothy 6:8

"...be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."" Hebrews 13:5

Thank you God for what You've given me, and help me to be content with what I have!

This post is linked up at:

Domestically Divine Tuesday
Titus 2sdays
Raising Homemakers Homemaking Link-Up
Hearts 4 Home

4 comments:

  1. A wonderful post. Thank you, it was a good reminder to be thankful in all things too!
    ~Blessings Jennifer

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  2. April,

    I struggle with this same thing. I guess we are always seeing others things these days, on the internet or in ads or even on T.V for those who have it. But we do need to be content. Thanks for reminding us....

    Blessings,
    Amy Jo

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  3. I really struggle with this too, but one thing that's helped has been a change of circumstances that has forced me to accept things as they are, and to ask God to help me to do that and not be discontent with it.

    When I was working outside the home and my husband had a larger income as well, I was resentful that we lived in a doublewide and did no have what I considered nice things. I was constantly buying new clothes and gadgets, but not caring for my home because I felt like it wasn't "good enough" to be worth taking care of.

    Since having to cut back and really budget, and selling or donating about 2/3 of our possessions, I've learned to appreciate things much more. I've also learned to like my home and we have made it pretty nice in side just by decluttering and doing some minor work. I'm actually finding having fewer things to be a blessing now, because I have more space, spend less time keeping up with it all, and can find the things I need and use much easier.

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  4. I am right there with you. My word for 2012 is Content. My first CONTENT post went up today. Striving to be more like Christ is a daily choice. I love the part about keeping you eyes on Jesus. For its when we take them off Him, things fog our sight!

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