Keys to Contentment
Recently I was having a conversation with a married friend who has kids and she was expressing to me that she wanted to be doing more than what she was doing, she wanted to focus more on career but is currently unable to... Then I talked to another friend who said that although she was in the best place she has ever been in her career her, life doesn’t look how she thought it would, she thought she would at least be dating someone by now but she is single single lol… then I thought about what I shared with both these ladies when I had this conversation with each of them… “I was starting to feel some dissatisfaction with my job.” I was ready to do something else but I didn’t know what… I was driving one day and realized that we were all discontent but for different reasons. Nobody was happy in the space that they’re currently in…so how do we fix that? What can we do? Because it feels like this is a continual thing…
I feel like we all struggle with it… In 1 Corinthians 7:17 Paul had this to say about it, “Don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is Gods place for you. Live, obey, and believe right there. God not your marital status defines your life.” I think Paul knew that wishing you were with someone else or somewhere else was the beginning of discontentment and that the real key to contentment is being able to see where you are as the gift.
Sooo how do we do that?
1. Redefine happiness so that you can find contentment. What does happiness look like to you right now? Our definition tends to be our benchmark (how we measure it) for happiness. So if happiness only looks like being married, (ex. I’ll be so much happier when I’m married) then you will never be happy as long as you’re single “ we must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way.”
2. Rediscover new ways to live inside your life. Maybe you’re a mom, so maybe you can’t pick up and travel like your girlfriends who are single without children or who maybe have more money- but you can have a girls night out, or a local trip, or a spa day/morning. What things CAN you do that make you feel alive? Perhaps there’s a hobby or a passion project that you enjoy that you could pick back up for just a hours a week…
3. Remember that God is sovereign, his plan is perfect and his timing is always right. So if you’re like me and you feel like you’re ready for a change in your job or life in general trust that God knows what you need and won’t keep you there any longer than necessary for your development. It’s easy to obey someone that you know makes no mistakes.
Discontentment is a character trait that is personal to you. You’re not discontent because of the situation you’re in. You’re discontent because that’s in your character. The Israelites had nothing to compare as it related to each other. They all had the same food and drink everyday in the wilderness, yet they were still unhappy because they lacked contentment. And then when they couldn’t compare the stuff they had they compared their old life as a slave to their new life in freedom (read 1 Corinthians 10:1-10 for reference). Discontentment makes you delusional. You can’t see your blessings because you only see your burdens. You can’t see what you have, only what you lack. It is definitely not easy but we have to be diligent about contentment. We have to make it a way of life. Hopefully this post gives you a starting point. Feel free to leave a comment or share with me on Instagram if you can relate!