I have been thinking a lot about thankfulness lately. People that are thankful are such a joy and a blessing to be around. If you are helping a thankful person, and serving them, no matter how hard the task... a thankful person makes you feel really special. Thankful people are just a joy to be around! So that made me start thinking... What causes thankfulness and joy?
I think I boiled it down to contentement. It's one word packed with meaning. I think it's a little bit like trust. Content means: rest or quietness of the mind in the present condition; satisfaction which holds the mind in peace, restraining complaint, opposition, or further desire, and often implying a moderate degree of happiness. Paul said, "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
If you are content where you are then doesn't thankfulness and joy follow? Paul said, in whatsoever state I am. He didn't say.. "once you reach the place where you have everything you desire and are truly happy you can be content." He said, whatsoever state.
It doesn't come naturally.. Paul said "for I have learned" I think contentement is like a state of mind. It's like putting God's best above the way you think things should be and going on with life, putting all your energy into it. Some people call it "blooming where you're planted."
After you have accepted the state you are, I believe joy and thankfulness follow. If we're not always looking ahead... Oh, when I get out of highschool, when I get a better job, if I just had a guy after me, when I get married... And the list goes on. Why can't we just be content in the state God has placed us? Why are we always looking to something we think would be better?
For so many young ladies the time of waiting inbetween highschool and marriage is the hardest time of their lives. Why is that so? God has instilled in us the desire to marry and have a family, but while we're waiting why don't we do something with our lives?
I believe this time of life for us is the most precious of all. We don't have a husband or children to take care of. We have more time than we will probably ever have. We will never get this time back. Let's use it to serve God and further his kingdom! Instead of looking at the time we have and pining for the day when we will marry, let us be content. These years of waiting are God's gift to us to do something for him. Let's use them!
To love God is to love His will. It is to wait quietly for life to be measured by One who knows us through and through. It is to be content with His timing and His wise appointment. ~Elisabeth Elliot
I think I boiled it down to contentement. It's one word packed with meaning. I think it's a little bit like trust. Content means: rest or quietness of the mind in the present condition; satisfaction which holds the mind in peace, restraining complaint, opposition, or further desire, and often implying a moderate degree of happiness. Paul said, "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."
If you are content where you are then doesn't thankfulness and joy follow? Paul said, in whatsoever state I am. He didn't say.. "once you reach the place where you have everything you desire and are truly happy you can be content." He said, whatsoever state.
It doesn't come naturally.. Paul said "for I have learned" I think contentement is like a state of mind. It's like putting God's best above the way you think things should be and going on with life, putting all your energy into it. Some people call it "blooming where you're planted."
After you have accepted the state you are, I believe joy and thankfulness follow. If we're not always looking ahead... Oh, when I get out of highschool, when I get a better job, if I just had a guy after me, when I get married... And the list goes on. Why can't we just be content in the state God has placed us? Why are we always looking to something we think would be better?
For so many young ladies the time of waiting inbetween highschool and marriage is the hardest time of their lives. Why is that so? God has instilled in us the desire to marry and have a family, but while we're waiting why don't we do something with our lives?
I believe this time of life for us is the most precious of all. We don't have a husband or children to take care of. We have more time than we will probably ever have. We will never get this time back. Let's use it to serve God and further his kingdom! Instead of looking at the time we have and pining for the day when we will marry, let us be content. These years of waiting are God's gift to us to do something for him. Let's use them!
To love God is to love His will. It is to wait quietly for life to be measured by One who knows us through and through. It is to be content with His timing and His wise appointment. ~Elisabeth Elliot
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