Am I content?
Happy Happy Happy 2023 everybody! I cannot believe we are over halfway through January already. The older I get, the faster time goes by… I guess some of those old timers were right, huh?
I did a little poll about getting back to it with my blog and asked if there were any topics that people would specifically want to hear about. One topic that really stuck out to me was “Contentment” or being content. This could take a few different directions, so I’ll try to keep it kind of general as a whole.
As a millenial (insert eye roll), I think that we have this constant need for wanting to do more, have more, be better, work harder, etc. A lot of it is from seeing the lives of others through their social media presence. I am definitley guilty of this! You know how it goes, the power couple from your graduating class are all-star parents, head of PTO and volunteer at the nursing home in their free time. They have 3 kids, a dog named Spot and life just looks fabulous. Or maybe you fall into the category where you see 20-somethings and they are living their best life, traveling the globe, making incredible memories with friends, meeting tons of new people, and you’re stuck at your hourly job trying to make this month’s rent, running on ramen noodles and pop tarts.
Dude, I get it! I’ve been in both categories. If we only had a little more money, we would be better off. If we could just lose 20 more pounds we would FINALLY be satisfied with how we look. If we could just get married and have kids, life would surely be complete. The thing is, I’ve found in every single one of those scenarios, you just find something else to want more, or it’s just not the worth the hype you had built up in your head. When we make more money, we tend to have more bills so inevitably we are still strapped for cash. When we lose the weight, we are now self-conscious about loose skin or worried to death about the possibility of regaining the weight back. We get married and try for babies and it’s just not working out so we still feel this emptiness. When does it stop and when is it enough? When can we just sit in the moment and appreciate it all for what it is?
I looked up some scriptures that I felt applied to this and I really liked what they had to say.
Luke 12:15 “And then he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist int he abundance of his possessions’”.
1st Timothy 6:6-8 “But Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”
Not gonna lie, it’s a bit ironic trying to write this out when I have things in my own life that I am not content with. I’d love to have another baby, but it’s been about 5 years of trying off and on with nothing to show for it. So here I am giving advice/insight, or whatever you want to call it, when I have the same issues.
What I DO know is that at the end of the day, contentment isn’t found through your next big score. It’s not in cars we drive, the houses we have, or the friends we compete with. It’s through Jesus and gratitude. Wish that house was bigger? A lot of people live on the streets. Want that new car so bad? That junker is getting you from A to B instead of walking to work. I’d like to have another baby…. hey, Alexis, did you ever sit and appreciate the fact that God allowed you to be a mother to a healthy girl and millions of women would do anything to be in your place? Ouch. That one hurt, didn’t it?
To find our contentment, we must find Jesus. We must thank the Lord for all He has given to us. Because while it could be better, it could always most definitely be worse. Just some food for thought.
Love you all!
Alexis