How to Be Content With What You Have
We live in a world that is telling us every day that we are not enough. Messages bombard us through Pinterest, advertisements, magazines and social media telling us that we need to be thinner, smarter, busier, faster, richer and a hundred other things that we just aren’t. How can we be content when everything tells us we aren’t measuring up?
They tell that we need more money, a bigger house, name-brand clothes–a picture-perfect life. With a single thumb-scroll we can see pictures that make us want to have longer hair, shorter hair, white cabinets, dark cabinets, a log cabin in the country, a high-rise in the city, a finished basement, a finished attic…you get the picture.
Reminders that we need more are everywhere. We are left feeling empty, sad and like we just don’t measure up. We can still find contentment when life isn’t happening like we expected.
BEING CONTENT BRINGS JOY
Someone once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and how right they were! A perfectly happy life suddenly becomes not enough when we look around to see that someone else has more, or different than us.
Notice, I didn’t say better.
Sometimes what we think of as “better” is really just different. Social media and advertisements only show us a highlight reel of life. No one lives in a highlight reel.
Chances are that picture you’re looking at is taken at that specific angle for a reason–and you really have no idea how many times they took it to get it to look just right.
Relaxed and natural? Probably not. If you glance back over your social media posts, I bet you’ll notice the same thing.
Look at the picture of your kids playing so sweetly together on the floor. Is it taken at an angle to hide the pile of laundry you still need to fold and put away? Maybe you took a picture of that delicious dinner you made last night. Then had to retake it when you realized you caught just a part of the gigantic mess on your kitchen counter.
When I look back at pictures of my life, I often find myself smiling a little at happy memories. Even pictures that aren’t the best quality, bring joy because of the memories in them.
But if I start comparing my pictures to some social media celebrity, I find myself feeling disappointed, ugly and discontent.
BEING CONTENT IS A CHOICE
Instead of focusing on someone else’s highlights, we need to start focusing on our own lives. Contentment is a choice.
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound.
Philippians 4:11
If you think about Paul’s life, it was pretty rough at times. He was stoned and beaten and left for dead. History tells us that his later days were spent under house arrest, and eventually he was martyred for his faith.
But somehow through all of that, he learned to be content. It wasn’t something that came naturally to him. He had to work to get there.
Paul found a way to be content even in his struggles. But sometimes we aren’t content in our homes with their heat pumps, large air conditioning units, electric lights, indoor restrooms, refrigerators and washing machines.
We can sit on our comfy couch in our living room surrounded by modern-day comforts, and become discontent because someone else has a larger living room with more modern-day comforts.
Maybe, just maybe, we should be a little bit ashamed.
I Timothy 6:6 says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” To our human reasoning that doesn’t make sense. Since contentment means being satisfied with what we have, how can it also be ‘great gain?’
Choosing enough
The truth is, when we choose to be content with what we have, it suddenly becomes enough. If we change our viewpoint we can look at everything we have as a blessing we don’t really deserve.
And, honestly, what do we deserve? A few verses down Paul writes, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”
Food and clothes. That’s it.
It doesn’t mention:
- a large bank account.
- a big house.
- the newest car.
- the things our friends and neighbors have.
I CHOOSE CONTENTMENT, NOT COMPARISON
It’s time we stop living in a world of comparison. We are all different. All equally important to God, but none of us are the same. I’m ready to say, “I am what I am, and I don’t need to be like {insert name here} to be happy.”
For me, living in contentment, not comparison, looks like this:
- I will not compare her house where she’s lived for 10 or more years with it’s beautiful décor, perfect paint colors and homey feel to my house, and become discontent with where I’ve lived for five months with its (still) bare walls and {still} unpacked boxes.
- I will not compare her body that gave birth to her last child years ago and is trim again with my body, and become discontent with mine because I haven’t lost all of my baby weight in the last eight months since my baby was born.
- I will not compare all the seemingly limitless things they are able to buy with all the things I can’t buy, and become discontent because our budget is smaller and we can’t afford a lot of extras.
- I will not compare her successful blog/book/business with mine, and become discontent because I am not successful yet.
Notice how superficial these things are? I’m not discontent because I don’t have food or clothes, or the basic necessities of life, but these silly things that don’t really matter.
Paul tells Timothy in this same chapter, “…follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness…” To God, those attributes are more important than earthly things.
If we really examine it closely, I think we’ll find that comparison and discontentment are really just covetousness and unthankfulness in disguise.
An attitude of gratitude
Let’s stop comparing our lives to one another, shall we? All of us can can choose to stop coveting and being discontent. Instead, we can live lives that are full of the joy and gains that come from being content and thankful.
Take a minute to consider all that you have to be grateful for. For me that includes a wonderful husband, two beautiful boys, a roof over our heads, plenty of food in our kitchen, and closets full of clothes and toys.
When we take time to be grateful, comparison can no longer steal the joy that comes from living the lives God has given us.
If you need a little bit of help focusing on gratitude, download the free gratitude prompts from the Not Just a Stay-at-Home Mom Resource Library, or take the 30-Day Gratitude Challenge!
