The famed German writer Goethe offered a list of nine requisites for contented living. They are as timely now as they were when he wrote them 200 years ago.
Health enough to make work a pleasure.
Wealth enough to support your needs.
Strength enough to battle with difficulties and overcome them.
Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them.
Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished.
Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor.
Love enough to move you to be useful to others.
Faith enough to make the real things of God.
Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
Goethe showed wisdom in these thoughts, perhaps especially in the use of the word “enough”. Often we seek something more, when contentment could come with gratitude for having enough.
There is great gain in godliness with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. – (1 Timothy 6:6-7)
“Grace me with contentment , Jesus, for after all I do have everything in You. ”
- written by Fr. John Catoir
Read more at http://www.turnbacktogod.com/9-requisites-for-contented-living/#ixzz0mDiO7R8i
Lately, well for the last year now....I have been detoxing myself from 'things' and the fleeting happiness they provide. That's not to say I don't enjoy buying something new or getting something new but I've really come to realize that the 'stuff' we have in our lives provides only temporary fulfillment. This discovery was made after realizing that I was relying on stuff, things of all sorts, as a sort of happiness trigger. If I can just get such and such for the house, I'll be happy. Or if I have that pair of shoes or that shirt, then I'll be happy. But sadly...I found after a year of being on an allowance and really looking at all my 'stuff' that 'stuff' in the end was just 'stuff'. It didn't provide lasting happiness. It didn't provide anything lasting...it went out of fashion or became used up or what have you and then just became...well, a donation or part of a landfill.
So then I started looking around at what did seem to keep me happy and what did provide permanent joy in my life and found that none of it in fact was 'stuff'. Matter of fact, most of it was people and what I did with those people, the time, the activities and the joy that comes from having friends and family and experiencing life with them.
Recently I was challenged about how much 'stuff' we have as Americans and all that we think we 'need' to be happy. I was challenged about the same thing I've been challenged about for the last year or so...that 'stuff' is just 'stuff' it doesn't provide anything permanent and really the money it takes to buy the 'stuff', the house, the things would be better suited helping others who have no food, water or shelter.
I live a blessed life...undeservingly so...after all I'm among the top 1% of income earners in the world. Baffling.
I'm not saying we can't have nice things but recently I started a new saying around our house..."If we don't need it, if we aren't going to really use it, we don't want it."
And I use that now as I go out into the world and go through the consumer ritual we do anytime we go to the store...we think we need the thing when in reality, we have things at home that are just as good.
God has really been shifting my thoughts to just being contented and not living in excess. It's a slow process as any good American knows bigger is better and newer is nicer.
It's tough thinking on the other side since it's not the norm and that's not to say I don't wish for the things I don't need...I do. But ultimately as I practice contentedness, I realize I've been so far across the line for so long that reeling myself in is going to take some time. But I'm doing better than I was a year ago. I will forge ahead.
And I plan to pray that I continue to grow in this area of my life. See that giving away is better than hoarding, see that true happiness is not in 'things' but rather in people, and also to see that 'things' sort of trap you into caring for them. I want to cut those ties...time with my friends and family and traveling is really going to be the 'candy' in my life. That will be my quest and in order to do that...I need to let go of the trappings of the 'stuff'.
Let freedom ring in this area of my life.
