What does it mean to be Content?

Tell me what does it mean to be content to you?  Does it mean pretending to me happy when instead your not happy and wishing for something you don't have?

I have been there.  I have lied to many when asked "how are you?"  Because you know they really don't want to know.  They want you to pretend your happy so they can feel good they asked you and go on there way.

But I am here to tell you, we can all truly be happy and mean it.  We just have to let go of what we think we "need" to be happy.  We need to trust God to provide what He "knows" we need.  God knows what we need and when we will need it.

We can truly be Happy when we have allot and when we have nothing.  It is a choice.  We can choose to be happy no matter what happens.  Paul (from the bible) was beaten and nearly killed many times in his life and he continued to choose to be Happy in God. 

Paul wrote this while imprisoned in a dark, dreary prison.  He was chained to a guard. 

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know that is is to be in need, and I know that it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:11-13)"

And we can have that too.  We just need to trust God and not try and control everything.  It is such a burden reliever when we chose to give the control back to God and chose to live our lives day by day according to God's Plan for us.  We can chose to be happy no matter what.  That doesn't mean you can't be sad when bad things happen (like miscarriages, baby loss, friend or family dies, and so much more) but it does mean that you trust God to get you through it.  It also means you look for the positive things that can come out of the pain.  It also means you have to let go of the people that bring you more pain.  You have to let go of the things other than God that you turn to heal you and make you happy.   You need to let God bring you healing and let God bring you joy.

I mean if Paul can be happy when being beaten, and almost killed, thrown in jail more than once.  That I think we can chose to be happy with what we have.  I mean most of most have a home (whether it's perfect or not), we have a place to live.  We have clothes on our back, maybe not in style.  But we have clothes.  We have food to eat and beds to sleep in.  We have more than so many.  But yet we still aren't happy.  Because we aren't looking for the right place to get our happiness from.

I am reading this book called "Calm My Anxious Heart" by: Linda Dillow.  I am reading for my Bible Study in my Women Group.  I have read the 1st chapter and part of the 2nd chapter.  In the 1st chapter she talked about a women named "Ella".  She worked as a Missionary in Africa  She was happy no matter what her circumstances.  She had this written in her diary.  She called it her "Prescription for Contentment"

1. Never allow yourself to complain about anything -- not even the weather

2. Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else

3. Never compare your lot with another's

4. Never allow yourself to with this or that had been otherwise

5. Never dwell on tomorrow -- remember that (tomorrow) is God's not ours

Wow, I can think about all the times I did so many of those.  Especially since we lost Isaac and Sweet Pea.  How times I think about that I would have Isaac here with me, if things were different.  How I would be feeling Sweet Pea move and would know if Sweet Pea is a boy or girl.  But God tells us not to go there.  Tells us not to think that way.  Everything that happens if for a reason.  God has a plan and his Plan will happen.  No matter what we do or say.  We are not in control, God is.

I love when the author wrote this too:

"Looking back, I realize I did desire to trust God, but sometimes He was very slow.  When He was moving at what I thought was a snail's pace.  I unconsciously decided He needed my help.  I know that sounds blasphemous.  God doesn't need our help.  Yet when I stepped in to a massage (the truer word is manipulate, but massage sounds better!) the circumstances or to organize the people, my actions were saying, "God, You're not doing what I think needs to be done, so I'll help You out.  It's our "helping God out" that leads to an anxious heart.  When we take over and try to control what happens, we take our focus off the One who is in control and put our eyes on our circumstances." Calming my Anxious Heart, By Linda Dillow

How many of us can say "that's me".  I know I can.  I did it.  I kept telling myself "I needed to help God to get myself pregnant".  I felt like we needed to make love every other day so that God "wouldn't miss my day or days of ovulation"  How wrong was I ???  I was so wrong. and God showed that to me, when I lost Sweet Pea.  God showed me that no matter what I did or how i did it, if it wasn't God's Plan it won't work.

So now I understand, I need to step back and let God do it in his time.  I understand (and it still makes me sad) to know that God may decide that we are done having babies.  And no matter how long or how much we make love, we will never get pregnant again or carry a baby to term.  But that is not something I need to worry about.  It is not something God wants me to worry about either.  God wants me to live each day according to his Word and His Will for my life.  I need to train myself to wake up each morning and ask God "show me what you want me to do today".  I need to let God lead and I follow in every area of my life.  This is not something that will happen over night.  But it is something I will continue every day to aim for.

Even with sadness in our life, we can chose to be happy for what we have.  I am happy that I have 5 earthly babies, and I am happy I have 2 Babies in Heaven.  I will see those babies again!!  I will spend the rest of my life with them and God willing the 5 I have here will all become believers and I will spend the rest of my life with all of my babies in Heaven!!

Christi