My twelve-year old daughter, Ruthie, has 2 statements that she makes with great frequency. They are, “Cool” and, “I’m good.”
Me: “Hey Ruthie! Come look at this soccer player make this goal. “
Ruthie: “Cool”
Me: “Would you want to go watch her play soccer sometime?”
Ruthie: “I’m good”
Ruthie is one of the most content people I know. When I asked her what she wanted for Gotcha Day, she shrugged her shoulders and asked for a size 5 soccer ball. “Sweetheart we are going to get you a size 5 ball anyway because that is the size you are moving into. What do you want as a present or what do you want to do to celebrate?” Ruthie: “I’m good”.
The girl did not learn her contentment from me. I am constantly wondering what I can do to the house next, how I can tweak my schedule to make it work better for my family, how I can make a little more money for the next vacation, or where I can move to escape the traffic of Houston. My mind doesn’t stop running on how to make things better.
Then God hit me with a Ruthie-sized contentment lesson last week at the Newseum in Washington DC. To be honest, I wasn’t real sure if I was going to like the place. A museum dedicated to the Freedom of the Press didn’t sound as amazing as people were chalking it up to be. But thankfully we went to it, largely because it is the only D.C. museum that we haven’t been to previously. So there’s that.
When you enter the museum, you are ushered to the bottom floor to start your tour. They have a super cool piece of the Berlin Wall there with an exhibit showing life on both sides. I was impressed and expected that to be the coolest part, but it got better. The 9/11 exhibit was great and I even enjoyed the exhibit on the Freedom of the Press. I mean the 1stAmendment is important and I don’t want to slight that in the least, but God had something even bigger to grab my discontented attention.
What took my breath away (for lack of a better cliché) was the exhibit on Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. Wow! I tried to place myself in each scenario and after I re-collected my faculties, I thought, “Damn, I’m good. I’m doing okay.” I’m not setting myself on fire in the street to protest the government, sitting next to my starving children in a war zone, or passing my baby through barbed wire hoping someone will offer them a better life. I really am good. Like really, really good.
I had my 16-year old with me and I didn’t want him to see me tearing up so I stepped around the corner to a computer where all of the pictures hanging in the room were presented with interactive captions and accompanying photos. I could have sat there all day reflecting on how blessed I am to live this life that God has granted me. It is way too easy to always look to the next better thing and miss that what we are living right now is someone else’s dream life.
The Pulitzer Prize exhibit was life’s best lesson for me on contentment. How thankful I am too that He has given me a daily reminder of that lesson in a sweet little girl whose life started in an orphanage and stands now in a loving family. You’re right, baby girl. You are good and I’m good too.
I am going to share some of the Pulitzer Prize winning pictures that I thought were among the most powerful because maybe it is exactly what you need too.
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