When will that be me? When will I get married? When will I have a baby? Why is everyone moving on but me? Why can't I travel the world? Why can't I shop when I want to? What does God truly have in store for me?
These are the questions of a social media frequenters. Questions of a millenial. Questions of probably every human on this earth at some point. We live a life of comparison, discontentment and WHYs. We question God about what He is going to do but never get an answer from Him because we look to everyone elses life for it. Is it intentional? Sometimes. Is it fair? NEVER. We have become a "gimme more" society. So much to the point where what we have is looked at as nothing. Think about it. I got a house, but it doesn't have enough rooms in it. I just got a new car, but it wasn't brand new. I'm working a job in my field, but why can't I have a more advanced position. I just had a baby, but my friend is pregnant with her second child, I need to catch up. Our lives have evolved into a CONSTANT rat race. More, more, more, more cheese. But why? Is having more truly what makes life sweeter or is it just a facade? Is living someone elses life better than living ours to the fullest. What do we need with all this "stuff"? What can we do with it other than hoard it, show it off and wait for it to go back out of style. If we actually sit down and discuss the answers to these questions I'm sure we will all give different reasons that seem very sensible to each of us individually. But one common answer would be "we think those things will make us happy". But one thing reigns true... Happiness is fleeting. One day we might truly be happy with our circumstances but as fast as direct deposit can hit with $1500 and bills can take that to $30 our happiness can be gone. There is nothing wrong with being happy. We all like to be around happy people and we all like to be happy but it is so TEMPORARY. Life is all about temporaries. We can't focus our life on trying to gain more temporaries. (Notice, I say "we" because this is a lesson that I am learning too. ) So, in my search for what I need to replace happiness with I started to read some self help books, different blogs and other stuff, but my true answer came as I was reading my bible (something that is fairly new to me). I found Philippians 4:12. This scripture was written by Paul who at the time was was in jail. He said "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want". This stuck out simply because he said CONTENT. From there I went to google where I looked up the word content and it means to be satisfied. That brought me to the thought of being a child and getting progress reports and if we got all satisfactories we looked at that as not the best or the worse, but right in the middle... Which helped us bounce back from that beating from that first nine weeks after we got those needs improvements. And although it wasn't the best it was still better. As adults we should adapt this concept. We can always do better but things can always be worse, so in the mean time being satisfied with where we are is important. We should pray to gain peace from this concept. The concept of being content. Having peace that is of Jesus. This peace does't come from things. When we have THIS peace we don't tend to worry about what the next person has or what I can do next to make myself look better. This Peace can make us feel a little better about that upgrade from a 1994 Camry to that 2000 Camry. Or about making 79 on your test when you made a 71 on the first one. This peace allows us to exhibit a spirit of gratefulness. It's peace that sometimes we don't understand. But we realize overtime that it makes us feel better. Better to the point of where joy begins to arise from the trenches of our heart. The joy that makes us realize that that "happiness" we wanted so badly is no longer worth chasing. The peace and joy of contentment/ satisfaction makes life more doable without feeling the need to impress or compete. It makes keeping up with the Jones' seem like a hassle and no longer something that we feel like we need to do. Through contentment we can truly see what God has instore for us, because our vision isn't so clouded with what WE have instore for ourselves or what God has instore for other people. We are now able to focus on our growth in this season and not so concerned with how quick we can get out of it. The more we work on being content in our current circumstances the more freedom we give God to move in His time and to do His will. We give Him time to reveal His plan and that allows us to see how our plan pales in comparison. Brittany
5 Comments
Andrea
7/10/2015 10:54:05 am
Wonderful post! Full of truths to remember for each day we live.
Reply
Andra Sparks
7/10/2015 02:32:56 pm
This message speaks truths that life teaches the hard way. Contentment is a huge factor in spiritual maturity. Thank you for this Britt!
Reply
Karen M Sparks
7/12/2015 01:44:17 am
The concept of being content... so important, so difficult, so freeing.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
August 2020
CategoriesAuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. |