Satisfied despite insufficiency
I was telling a friend about a recent visit to my university campus to return library books. I was going on about how nice it must have been for the students who I passed in the study halls to be so close to campus. They were sitting in groups, pen in hand and laptops in place. I didn't have study buddies, I navigate myself through the courses. Goodness, even my "laptop" (it only works when it's plugged into a power source) isn't cooperating. I almost have to fast to get it to operate so I can type assignments.
My friend stopped me in my tracks and said: "some of them probably looked at you and liked what you have". They probably thought how nice it was to have your own car to drive to campus, to have a job to fund your studies, which aren't your first qualification. I was immediately taken back to something that had been in my heart that very week, I wrote to you about it, gratitude.
Another element of an attitude of gratitude (which we said keeps us from complaining) is being content. It is very difficult to be grateful when you are not content.
Of the many definitions of the word, I liked this one: To be content (to content oneself with) is to accept as adequate, despite wanting more or better. It's sounds so contradictory, how can I accept something as enough when I'm not really satisfied with it? I don't know either, but that's just the way it is. On my way to where I want to be, I have to accept (appreciate and celebrate) how far I've come. That makes me grateful, and it fuels me to achieve the better that I desire.
If we do not learn this trick, we will live very bitter lives, because we will wait only until we have exactly what we want in order to be happy. And how long will that be?
And do you know that it's a Biblical principal that God gives to those who see (recognize, appreciate) and use what they already have? Read the story of the talents in Matthew 25. Verse 29 says:
"For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."
It says this on the basis of those who received talents and used them. They accepted that that was what they had received as their portion and they would work with what they had.
A major obstacle to being content is comparison, and we see it vividly in this parable. The guy who received one talent never used it, he probably looked at the one with two and the one with five and thought what he has was no good, it couldn't compare to what the others had, he couldn't compete. He talked himself out of doing anything with what he had and buried his talent instead.
How many times have we dismissed the value of what we have because we compared it to someone else'?
There's something Beth Moore shared in her book 'So Long, Insecurity' that I'm still reeling over. She was speaking about ways we woman can help each other in staying secure. Under the heading 'Stop making comparisons' she says:
"When we work from an activated mentality of God-given security, we are fully capable of thinking another woman is beautiful without concluding we are ugly. We can esteem another woman's achievement without feeling like an idiot. We can admire another woman's terrific shape without feeling like a slob. Where on earth did we come up with the idea that we have to subtract value from ourselves in order to give credit to someone else?"
I couldn't have said it better.
When you're content, you don't need to compare yourself with others, you accept where you are and what you have and therefore can easily complement and esteem others without feeling less than them.
I now see why God made it a command not to covet. In order to covet (which is to want what someone else has) you first have to compare, and conclude that what you have is less in value. Interesting enough, God made this command not only in light of possessions but also relationships when he speaks of not coveting your neighbors wife (see Exodus 10:17). God gave orders not to engage in covetous and comparative activities because He knew how much joy it could steal from our lives.
So be grateful today, be content with what you have and who you have and watch bitterness find no room in your heart.
My friend stopped me in my tracks and said: "some of them probably looked at you and liked what you have". They probably thought how nice it was to have your own car to drive to campus, to have a job to fund your studies, which aren't your first qualification. I was immediately taken back to something that had been in my heart that very week, I wrote to you about it, gratitude.
Another element of an attitude of gratitude (which we said keeps us from complaining) is being content. It is very difficult to be grateful when you are not content.
Of the many definitions of the word, I liked this one: To be content (to content oneself with) is to accept as adequate, despite wanting more or better. It's sounds so contradictory, how can I accept something as enough when I'm not really satisfied with it? I don't know either, but that's just the way it is. On my way to where I want to be, I have to accept (appreciate and celebrate) how far I've come. That makes me grateful, and it fuels me to achieve the better that I desire.
If we do not learn this trick, we will live very bitter lives, because we will wait only until we have exactly what we want in order to be happy. And how long will that be?
And do you know that it's a Biblical principal that God gives to those who see (recognize, appreciate) and use what they already have? Read the story of the talents in Matthew 25. Verse 29 says:
"For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."
It says this on the basis of those who received talents and used them. They accepted that that was what they had received as their portion and they would work with what they had.
A major obstacle to being content is comparison, and we see it vividly in this parable. The guy who received one talent never used it, he probably looked at the one with two and the one with five and thought what he has was no good, it couldn't compare to what the others had, he couldn't compete. He talked himself out of doing anything with what he had and buried his talent instead.
How many times have we dismissed the value of what we have because we compared it to someone else'?
There's something Beth Moore shared in her book 'So Long, Insecurity' that I'm still reeling over. She was speaking about ways we woman can help each other in staying secure. Under the heading 'Stop making comparisons' she says:
"When we work from an activated mentality of God-given security, we are fully capable of thinking another woman is beautiful without concluding we are ugly. We can esteem another woman's achievement without feeling like an idiot. We can admire another woman's terrific shape without feeling like a slob. Where on earth did we come up with the idea that we have to subtract value from ourselves in order to give credit to someone else?"
I couldn't have said it better.
When you're content, you don't need to compare yourself with others, you accept where you are and what you have and therefore can easily complement and esteem others without feeling less than them.
I now see why God made it a command not to covet. In order to covet (which is to want what someone else has) you first have to compare, and conclude that what you have is less in value. Interesting enough, God made this command not only in light of possessions but also relationships when he speaks of not coveting your neighbors wife (see Exodus 10:17). God gave orders not to engage in covetous and comparative activities because He knew how much joy it could steal from our lives.
So be grateful today, be content with what you have and who you have and watch bitterness find no room in your heart.
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