Contentment Part 2

Several people either emailed me or commented on my facebook thread on the earlier topic of contentment and they had some great points that are worth sharing. Most people's emails or comments fell into one of 2 categories- 1. Discontentment with your situation in life- children, marriage, work, etc. 2. Discontentment with possessions.

I want to touch on #1 later but for today point out an interesting insight on #2 and of course get your thoughts if you don't mind sharing.

One of my friends wrote, "Every time we find ourselves drifting along with culture we just have to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us back by reminding us of what's really important. For our kids, we need to focus on what's important with them consistently. Like the carpet and their clothes are all temporary, but they, on the other hand, are forever. As much as possible, just keep the proper perspective when dealing with them and their "accidents" and it wll do wonders in helping them understand what's important and what's not."

So I want to run with that.

This picture is of a dear friend's son one night when we were at dinner. He had this beautiful Ralph Lauren shirt on that he covered in spaghetti and "paint your dessert" dye. I kept thinking "Oh no Bec will never get that out of that shirt" and Bec kept telling me that it was no big deal. I worried about that shirt for days but Bec was able to focus on the bigger picture of a great evening with friends.

Could it be that our lack of contentment stems from the fact that we hold onto our possessions too tightly and place too much importance on the things that are temporal instead of what is eternal? Trent often says that we break the sins of greed and materialism through giving. I think it is fair to argue that lack of contentment (in our possessions) runs hand in hand with greed and materialism and that what we probably need to do is hold our earthly possessions a little more loosely.

If that is the case, then maybe one way we can help foster contentment in our children is by placing our possessions in their proper position and by teaching our children to give sacrificially. I am sure there are a lot of ways to do this. One family we knew in Waco used to gather their kids together once a year, pray over all the requests they had received for money, and then as a family decide how their financial donations where going to be distributed. No doubt this produced great fruit in the lives of their kids.

Obviously there is a balance between holding our possessions more loosely and being good stewards of what God has given us. The concluding difference lies in the state of our heart which funny enough brings us full circle to where we started. Our true contentment is found in a proper relationship with Christ which of course will overflow into how we relate to our possessions and model that for our children.

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Funny thing- my friend, Bec (Rebecca), who was so relaxed about the ruined Polo shirt, her nickname "Bec" means "Satisfied". Go figure.

TOTALLY UNRELATED PICTURE OF THE DAY: First day of Mother's Day Out today