Lately, it seems as if every time God
exposes a weakness in me, He exposes that same tendency in one of my children,
using their struggle to expose the depth of my waywardness and how it has
shaped their bent toward the same sin. I cannot explain in words the
vulnerability I am experiencing as I see just how helpless I am without the
Lord. Without His wisdom. Without His strength and help. How can I train and
steer my kids in His ways when I am still learning so much? When I still
stumble and fall in the same areas? When I still need His intervention as much
and more than they do? When they need wisdom I have yet to obtain or master?
After posting
Monday’s blog on “The Greatest Vanity of All: Discontentment” (http://shaunawallace.blogspot.com/2012/06/greatest-vanity-of-vanities.html), I was
ambushed by several of my kids with every reason why the grass is greener on
the other side of a decision we’ve made for them. When my response failed their
expectation, depression set in. Not just for the disappointed one, but for me.
As I took it all to the Lord and cried out to Him, begging Him for wisdom and
to guard this child’s heart against resentment and any ensuing hardness, He
showed me the root of the issue: discontentment. Then He showed me the one
who’s modeling it: me.
I am
convinced a substantial source of discontentment is comparison. We look around
and focus on what others have and we don’t. What others get to do and we don’t.
What others don’t have to do and we do. What others don’t have to deal with and
we do. We decide others have it better and hang our happiness on becoming like
them. We tell ourselves it will make us look better, feel better, belong
better. And our disappointment stealthily drags us to state of despair.
Is contentment
even possible when we’re not getting what we want? When things seem impossible?
When we’re convinced something beyond us at the moment is the key to our
happiness?
Yes! Paul
explains in Philippians 4:11-13: “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I
have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased,
and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to
be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all
things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Contentment is learned. It is not a
natural state, but it can become the one that feels most natural to us, through
Christ who strengthens us.
In my experience, it is not accidentally
discovered or acquired through osmosis. It is a conscious choice to renew my
faith. Faith that our heavenly Father loves us and knows what’s best for us.
Faith that He is in control and does not allow what He does not intend to use
for our good. Faith that He will direct our paths, directly or through those in
authority over us, as we seek His will above all else. Faith that He is always
there, as Hebrews 13:5 tells us: “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has
said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’"
We can be content with exactly where
we are, what we have, and what He has us doing because He will never leave or forsake us. That is our
source of contentment. It is the only thing that matters. The only thing of
eternal importance.
Gratitude naturally flows. Or we might
have to be intentional about that as well. Either way, thankfulness douses
discontentment. We can’t be grateful and unhappy at the same time. We can’t be
grateful and full of fear. We can’t be grateful and angry. We can’t be grateful
and grumpy. We can’t be grateful and resentful. We can’t be grateful and
envious.
It’s up to us.
Choose faith.
Practice gratitude.
Learn contentment.
There are brown patches, bald spots,
chinch bugs, pits, and burrs in the grass on both sides of every fence. Only
God knows the side on which you belong. Trust Him. Praise Him. Let Him be God
as you become more wholly His today. Find the green grass where you are today, and thank Him for it.
Shauna Wallace
Holy His
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