liluga - love isn't love until given away

"Loving God means doing what he tells us to do, and really, that isn't hard at all." 1 John 5:3 NLT

Monday, November 7, 2011

Contentment


Looking out my window today, it is rainy and cold. The wind is blowing the leaves off the trees and  I have a chill in my bones that will stay with me until the first warm days of spring.  Having grown up in the suburbs of Chicago, I always loved winter.  I loved falling snow, warm sweaters, and curling up with a good book and a cup of tea in the warmth of my home.   It’s not that I no longer love these things, but now I understand why older people retire to Florida.  Sunshine and warmth!  And as I get older, I need both more and more.  So, why do I stay living in the Chicago area?

It’s where I was born and grew up.  Where I went to college, got married, had my children, and sadly, where I got divorced.  Still, many people move from the places they grew up.  So what else keeps me here?  My extended family, good friends, my job, a town we love and schools my kids are happy at. And I’m not anywhere near retirement age yet. 

Contentment is the word that comes to mind when I think about why we stay.   According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, content, as an adjective, means “happy enough with what one has or is; not desiring something more or different; satisfied.”  Contentment is the state or quality of being content.  Instead of wishing for something I don’t have, or can’t have (such as Florida weather in Chicago), I need to be content, and HAPPY with what I have (including a forecast for a brutally cold and snowy winter).

So bring on the warm wool sweaters!  I’ll wait until spring to cut them up into liluga’s.

I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything.  I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation, whether it be a full stomach or hunger, plenty or want; for I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me strength and power.”
Philippians 4:12-13 NLT