Contentment. It's something the Lord has been convicting me of a lot lately (& honestly I've been meaning to share about, but I hope my tardiness will only mean it resonates with more due to the unique season we are in). I haven't shared much regarding the journey to this home we have now. When it became clear we would, in fact, be moving, we started searching for properties with land. We found a couple we loved, and made an offer on one that didn't work out. Then my husband showed me this house. My first reaction was to scoff in [dis]contentment. 1600 square feet & 2 bedrooms?! Hilarious. My husbands dream was (and has been for while) acreage. I could get down with that, as long as I didn't have to sacrifice MY conveniences. The square footage, the updates, the soaking tub. So this 6 acre property - while beautiful outside - was not up to MY "standards". It's shameful for me to think how I initially reacted towards it. I honestly didn't even want to come see it. There was a series of events that occurred where it was clear this was the direction the Lord was leading, despite my grumbles.
I started listening to a book called "Learning Contentment" by Nancy Wilson. Woo! Talk about some conviction. She often parallels Paul and his journey. How he, of all people and situations, truly knew contentment. It is a deep satisfaction with the will of God.
1 Timothy 6:6-8 says “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." Complaining and grumbling and murmuring are discontent’s ugly sisters, and God hates them all. One of the main ways we can resist the temptation to be discontent is to pay attention to what we are thinking about. You may be surprised to notice how much jealousy, dissatisfaction, & complaining are happening. If we want to change our thought patterns we must practice thinking about things that are praiseworthy & root out the things that are not. "Plant flowers around the cottage too, not just the mansion."
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