Being Content

 

     Welcome blog readers!  For the next several blogs, I am going to change the way I do my blogs.  I am going to make them more personal with a biblical theme or verse to draw from.  I will start as a child and go from there, but no promises to go chronologically in order.  I hope this will be both fun and purposeful.

      Deuteronomy 5:21

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

      As a child, my world was as normal as any other healthy child born into this world.  I hit all the milestones with ease and was a happy toddler.  As I began walking, my right foot turned in and caused me to fall more than normal.

      That is when, I began wearing corrective shoes.  They were white leather with black accents on the sides.  I was not happy with them, because they weren't my sneakers and they had to be worn for every occasion.  This was my first lesson on covetousness.  I wanted to wear the 'cool' shoes like the other kids, but those shoes weren't helpful to my feet or falling episodes.  "We cannot be covetous and thankful at the same time. Covetousness kills contentment, joy, and peace."  I don't know if I was ever thankful for those shoes, but I did learn to accept them.

      A year or two later, I was put into leg braces.  Now these were both good and bad, from my perspective as a child.  The good was that I could pick out my shoes and add variety.  The bad was that I now had ugly, hot restraints that I had to relearn to walk with.  Although the braces supported me to fall less, there were new things to learn not to covet.  Such as the cute ankle socks with the ball on the back, instead I had to wear hot white knee high socks no matter the season.  In later years, my friends began to wear cute shoes with heels, but my braces only allowed for flat shoes.  It may sound trivial, but for a girly girl it is a real thing that you just dismiss as another thing that you just give up.

        We live in a world where there is much to desire, but we must use our faith to see that we don't have to have everything our heart desires.  The small lessons I learned as a child, that helpful aides are more beneficial than pretty things, have stuck with me throughout my life.  There would be harder choices to come later in life, but with the same basic lesson to be lived out.  "He who is not contented in what he has, would not be contented in what he would like to have." [Socrates}

       "Faith is the experience of contentment in Jesus. The fight of faith is the fight to keep your heart contented in Christ — to really believe, and keep on believing, that he will meet every need and satisfy every longing."