I am a creative soul. My mind is always thinking. I enjoy using my resources and I love to learn. I can always come up with something I could do, should do, want to do or have to do. I also enjoy change...... I like DOING. Put that all together and I admit I sometimes struggle with contentment. "If only" or "when" or "we could" or "What if" are thoughts that I have to keep in control. I have more ideas than I could ever accomplish! The past few days my mind has been working overtime on plans for potential remodel projects for our house. We WILL remodel the kitchen/dining room with in the next few years.... it really needs it. We would LOVE to have a covered front porch and a screened in back porch.... then my mind gets a going and I've come up with a LONG list of 'would love' for our home. The list grows and my joy for how it is goes down.
The bottom line...... It is so easy to be consumed by the WANTS that we loose our contentment and peace with the blessings we HAVE!!!! Look at that picture of the pioneer family in front of their soddy! Seriously!!!! I live in a house that was built in 1911 and has had generations of families find shelter and warmth with in it's walls. Really, do I NEED all those fun WANTS?? Look at that family.... living in a Sod House and making do with what they have!
Choosing Simplicity is more often than not an exercise of WALKING a life of CONTENTMENT. There is always MORE to desire...... Appreciating what I have and enjoying a simple life takes swimming upstream in our culture. Sometimes I get swept up in the current, but fortunately God gives my heart a few tugs and I realize that what I have (this 1911 house with all it's old fashioned quirks) is wonderful! Yes, we will remodel the kitchen.... but not till we can pay for it with CASH! It works just fine as it is right now.....
How about you?? Do you ever struggle with contentment?? For me watching Home and Garden TV stirs up a lot of unnecessary longings. I also have to be careful what kind of magazines and blogs I read. What I put in my mind really does make a difference. What do you do to keep a content heart?? What do you have to be thankful for TODAY??
Have a BLESSED day, BE a BLESSING!Heather
7 comments:
this was a great post, Heather! I always here comments from people saying our house is "small" for us! Maybe by American standards, its a bit small for 5, but its more than enough for me to keep clean! and we have a wonderful backyard...and live off a corn field...something I DREAMED of when I lived in California. When I get "discontent", I look at the pictures of our World Vision Children or visit their website. I try to remind myself its not our money...its God's money. I told Dana how much of our money a month "disappears" to support others...he was happily surprised..because we all know that the key to contentment is not what we have...its what we GIVE! Loved hearing from you on your blog!
Today I'm thankful for .... a busy day at my diner, my son and his family had a safe and sound trip to Vancouver are now eating a delicious dinner with my parents, the 4 eggs my chickens gave me, the big winds we had overnight did not topple all my flowers. Today I am content and I pray for the same tomorrow, and the day after....
Oh man -- I really needed to read this.
Ahhh, "walking the life of contentment..." it's a constant struggle, isn't it? For me, anyway.
Yesterday the DIScontent hit me pretty hard when a bloggy friend rejoiced that her husband had finally found a job after 11 months of unemployment and that they were FINALLY replacing their 9-yr old carpet and planning their annual trip to Disney....
::sigh::
My husband has been gainfully employed for essentially all our married life and yet the only way we ever go on vacation is if we win it or if my parents take us; we desperately NEED new windows, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon, and my carpet is 13 yrs old and wrinkly because it was never installed properly but that ain't gonna get fixed anytime soon either....
The list really never ends.
And yet, when I look at SO MANY people around the world and how little they have, I know I really am blessed. The trick is to keep remembering that!!
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Hi Heather,
Found your blog through Thistle Garden.
What a great post! I have heaps to be thankfull for, however like you I often find myself always looking round the next corner. I have spent the last few years in Dubai LONGING to come and live in Cyprus. We are here! We are lucky to live in a really nice place but is that enough????? No, cause I am desperate to OWN a house here. But do we ever really own anything? And is it ours to own in the first place?
Then having been born in Africa, I find myself saying to TBH, Maybe we should move back to Kenya. the poor man looks at me in dispair, woman we only just got here............. when does the WANTING ever stop?
I am working on it though and try hard to bring myself into check when I know I should be ever thankful for what we have and live each day for what it is now.
Have a great weekend.
Hay Bale Happiness.
http://haybalehappiness.blogspot.com/
Hi Heather...reading some back posts I missed. Contentment...hmmm...that is a TOUGH one for me. We are still living in our "started home" 13 years later, it's small, run down, one bathroom...it wasn't the plan. But...life happens, things change and here we are. SO to try and stay content I do my best to make what I DO have comfortable and pretty. And I try to remember one of the reasons we are still here is because I was afforded the opportunity to stay home and raise our boys. And that...makes it all worth it! And when God sees fit to move us on to something bigger...then I will be thankful. Until then...I'm doing my best to "bloom where I'm planted"!!
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