Contentment

One area that I struggle with in my life is contentment. Part of it is the culture, part of it is being the baby of my family, and most of it is just being downright sinful.

GOD has been showing me examples in my daily living of what contentment looks like. From little children being absolutely content, nay thrilled, with the crumbs in the bottom of the doughnut bag to pictures of Kenyan natives praising the Lord for fresh, new mud on their mud hut.

We are such a blessed people, why do we want more? It aggravates me and it's just plain wrong and yet still I covet and am discontent.

Today I was at the library and was grumbling about some of their policies when I realized I was grumping about the fact that I have access to tens of thousands of books - for FREE! How childish! (Just for the record I still think their policy is stupid but I'm not longer pouting about it).

We have food, yet we complain that it's too hot, too cold, too spicy, not spicy enough.

We have shelter, yet we complain that we don't have enough space, don't have the right furniture to fill the space, don't like the color.

We have family, yet we complain that they are meddling, not present enough, weird, or too stuffy.

We have every.thing.we.could.poss.i.bly.want and yet it's not enough or not good enough. I even hear in it my children's voices "What else did you get me? That isn't what I asked for! I don't like broccoli."

It's the wrong color, the wrong size, the wrong shape. Just not exactly what we were looking for.

Do you think she would care if her house didn't have radiant heat?

Do you think he would care if his coffee was a grande, double shot, no whip frappe-whatever?

Do you think he minds that his blanket isn't 600 thread count with high loft or that it doesn't match his duvet cover?You get the idea. When Angie went to India I didn't think it would affect me much. But when I read her posts and saw her pictures tears streamed down my face. Over my hot meals in my comfortable house I relayed her trip to Mr. Steady. And then I got up the next morning and forgot about it and grumbled about something or other, (I'm sure it was how someone left 52 pairs of shoes in the kitchen or some ungrateful thing like that). But those pictures assault me in the most inopportune times.

God has been speaking to me a lot lately about what I have and don't need. I don't think he calls us all to a life of homelessness. But this guy sure got my attention when he was on Focus on the Family a few weeks ago. What an experience.

I know this post seems like it's all over the place but so are my thoughts lately. Contentment. I think I'll be posting a lot more about this in the coming weeks and months. Maybe even years. Did I mention I'm the baby of the family?