A face of contentment

Somehow, the question and the journey of finding left a mark in me. And so I decided to write this down. Who knows it may bless someone on the way…

So apparently, I have an issue with “contentment”. I guess the first time it occurred to me when my boss told me (when i bumped the idea of becoming a trainer instead of an IT support), that I should learn contentment.

I thanked her for the advise, and made some progress. It took me another year probably to fully accept my lot, and be happy with it.

The second incident was when I have a meet up with my pastor. Somehow the subject of contentment appeared again. This time I need to work harder to search deep to find out the area of discontentment.

I read a book on leadership, when inside, there is a section on “discontentment”, and it generalizes to say that discontentment happens when our wants are not met. If we could accept God provides for our needs and not our wants, then we can be contented. Point noted there.

Definitely i have some areas that I’m not happy with. And I believe a lot of people are not happy either. Somehow, there’s this thing in us which desire to have more and want more…

I have not found the answer for this yet…

But I realized something interesting about our second daughter. She is an easy going child. She demands things. Yet, she is happy with what she has. So if her sister said she has A, this little girl would reply with “I have B”. And if the sister said she got Papa, and this little girl would reply with “I have Mama”. In all the taunting and comparison challenge from her sister, she always win. Not by outdoing her sister, but by simply happy showing off what she has…a clear example when the sister says,”I am big.” She would happily declare that she is small (to some sense small is cute).

I thought, this would be one aspect / example of contentment. It is secure no matter what the comparison thrown out. That there is always something I have, and it is a good enough thing even on itself.

Secondly, a sharing from one whom I respect because of his earnesty and commitment. I know his life and his family. He does not have much things. Yet, he is the best example of contentment in my mind. For the fact that he has so little, yet he has no ambition or envy or unhappiness. Instead, he said that he thank God for the fact of what he has. If not because of God, he would not have what he has right now.

In a away, that’s absolutely right. Whether we have little or much, we won’t have it in first place if not because of God. And the right attitude is to be thankful. Even with the little thing he gave us, for it’s better to have little with righteousness than having a lot or plenty with wickedness.

Hence, my conclusion thus far on the matter. How to be contented? Have a right perspective that everything comes from God. And He has given us something, even the little things are big things. The more we grateful for the little things, the fuller our life would be. And we won’t compare ourselves with others.

This entry was posted in Blessedness, Encouraged, Enjoyment, Providence, Thankful and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

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