Authentic Contentment

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may be; for I have learned also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances." -Martha Washington

Contentment is something that I have learned, am relearning, and will learn for the rest of my life. I hope that what I say here will be of help to you. I might step on a couple peoples toes and for that I wish I could say I am sorry but I am not. What is true (definition of true is: being real; genuine; or authentic) contentment and what are contentment destroyers?

Are you content with your life? Do you wish that something would happen to make life exciting? I do. Do you wish that one annoying family member or friend would stop? I do. Do you ever feel dissatisfied with life and what God has called you to? I do. God has called us to do things that we don't always want to do. So what is our response? Are we so wrapped up in our relationship with Jesus that our heart longs to fulfill his purpose for our lives? Or do we whine and complain that things are not going our way? I personally have a hard time with contentment.

Some things I am learning about contentment:

1) Contentment in who I am: Right now as most of you know, I am a junior in high school preparing to be a wife and mother one day. Yet, school is my life. I work on school 6 days a week and hard as I try, I am still behind. Why do I struggle with school? Because I long to do something big with my life, school is not it. As I know in my head, that God is using school to prepare me for the rest of my life that thought, however, will not go down to my heart. I feel as if all this work I am putting into school is being wasted. Yet in my head I know its not.

Christ created me for a purpose as stated in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, " declares the Lord, " plans to prosper you and not to harm, plans to give you a hope and a future." I need the heart knowledge that I am where God wants me and I need to live like I believe it. Another verse that has provoked much thought in me is Romans 9:20-21 that reads, "But who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to the One who formed it, why did you make me like this? Does not the Potter have the right to make our of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for the disposal of refuge?"

2) Contentment: On who is in Authority Over Me;

I have been reading Lies Young Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss and Dannah Gresh and one of the lies has been about submission. I have learned that Satan hates authority of all kinds and has given us a special distaste for it. Secondly, is that obeying only when I agree is NOT submission. For Eph 5:21, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." The definition of reverence is, "a gesture indicative of deep respect." Why I am writing about submission? Because there is a time in your life when you long to stretch your wings and prepare to fly solo. As I am in that time in life, however, I am learning there will always be authority to submit to. Yet, I still choose how I submit to that authority in my life? Do I submit begrudgingly or do I submit cheerfully because I know that it pleases the Father? Who am I that I can or would complain about anything after all that my Savior has done for me? Who am I? I am "Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, Redeemed byt the Blood of the the Lamb, Redeemed thr' His infinite mercy."

In conclusion: If you can't learn to be content while you are single, you won't be satisfied in your marriage." -L. Shanks