The Art of Contentment Part One

Contentment is something most people strive for.
Usually we think about contentment when we aren't content.
It usually goes something like, "If I only had this... or if I were in this place...or if I wasn't here..."
Sound familiar?

We may think of contentment as a lofty aspiration and something that only really wealthy or
incredibly aged people have.

I've met quite a few people who are in their eighth decade and are quite discontent with their lives.
They long for the times when their bodies were healthier or their minds were sharper or their families lived nearer.

Perhaps it's the longing for things not obtained that produces this lack of contentment.

But what if the exact spot we're in in our lives this day is exactly what God intends for us?

What if we chose to live in this day instead of looking at this day and deciding that it's not right because we don't have everything we want or desire or wish for.

It'll require a change in perspective. What if a Jeep with no air conditioning on a 100 degree day is exactly what I need? Or if a bank account that has enough, but not much left over. Or I'm single. Or I'm childless?

I was forced to think about these things a year ago when I was pregnant with our daughter and we learned that she would not live after birth and then a month later at five months pregnant, she died.

Many people said that I only had to believe and ask God for a healing and miracle and it would happen.
I prayed for a miracle.
I believed it could happen.
It didn't.

When she died, I remember feeling and even saying to a friend that I wasn't ready to let her go.

So how do I marry that God gives us exactly what we need when we need it and the fact that my heart wasn't ready to let go?
Seems like a contradiction, right?
If getting pregnant with a baby that was going to die was exactly what I needed and what glorified God the most, then why did it hurt so stinking much?
For that matter why does it still hurt?

The answer isn't simple and I'm not even sure I fully understand it myself.

I have to go back to the beginning---to Genesis when Adam and Eve had everything they needed in the Garden and through deception they introduced sin into the world.

I am a child of Adam, but through Jesus Christ, I've been adopted into God's family.

Because of that adoption, I can carry a child that is going to die and be at peace through the pain that this is indeed God's best for me.

For that matter I can continue to live everyday after her death knowing that God did what was best and it's in that changing of my perspective, that dying to my deceptive emotions and feelings, that focus on my Creator and the life to come that I can choose to be content with whatever my circumstances are.