Settling into Contentment
Aren’t you tired of believing that you need more?
I think we’d be so much happier if we told ourselves that we have enough.
Easter did it for me. Everyone scurrying to buy new shoes, new clothes, because you know, we don’t have enough. People asking “Did you get the kids new Easter clothes?” More is an expectation. More is fun. Everybody’s getting more. (Note to self: clean kids’ overloaded closet.)
We are programmed to get more and more and more.
And in this country we don’t just want things. We want expensive things. We need the latest iGizmo, even though we have one that works perfectly. We think nothing of dropping hundreds on clothing, jewelry, kitchen appliances or the latest coffee maker. I wonder what God thinks of my use of His money, and I shake my head at myself.
Enter Pinterest. I love it, and I hate it. Because apparently I can’t control myself when it comes to wanting more great ideas.
Does it ever end, this desire for one more thing? Why is it such a struggle to be content?
Discontent is an insidious cancer.
It robs you of your joy. It pulls all of the happiness and life right out of you and leaves you feeling empty and insignificant. Because you don’t have THAT.
We are like spoiled children.
I wonder how it makes our Father feel? We’re too smart to actually say “I am not content.” —->but we live it when we cannot stop buying.
I have been painting which means that I have had long times of uninterrupted thought, as if you couldn’t tell.
Ya know what?
Just for today, what if we were happy with good food and the clothes on our back?
I have learned that whatever state I am in, to be content.
Having food and raiment, be content.
I wonder if we were to look around our homes and start thanking God for each item by name, if this would cure this curse of “not enough.”
Do our checkbooks reveal that we are spending our money on our own lusts, or on things that God values? Is eternity in view in our spending? Are we spending on “what matters?”
Some things I am pondering this week.
These are some great thoughts to ponder…I too ponder similar things and lately have been thanking God for small ways that I see His perfect faithfulness (Isaiah 25:1) all around me. In simple provisions like finding out my son has a new shirt in the back of his closet that he received as a birthday present in January that had long been forgotten and can now wear for Easter 🙂 and I found a simple inexpensive dress for my daughter to wear thanks to a gift card she received from a relative. Anyways, they are little things that make me remember that God does care how we spend the money He has given us and when we seek Him about these seemingly small things, He will answer!