Contentedness....

Guide to Contented living

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.

Simple is Beautiful

For several years now I have made a habit of purchasing either an Amaryllis or a cluster of Paper Whites (aka Narcissus) just prior to Christmas. It's my little tradition for myself. There's something about the growth in the dead of winter, the anticipation of the bloom, the wonder that still gets me every time- of the plant and the water and the light and how it all comes together.  Mostly though...I think about God when I check the status of my plant each day...I think about the symbolism represented there...the hope.

No, I don't save the same one and reuse it year to year, although I've been told you can. I'm not a green thumb. Though I highly admire people who are such as my Aunt Nancy and my Sister.  I wish I had the wherewithall to listen to what they tell me as to how I can save the same bulb year after year...but something disconnects for me when they start to explain. Sad, but very true.

I just go to Target or any good chain store that offers too much and in many varieties...and purchase one. They only run about 10 bucks and well, they're priceless to me.

Mine recently bloomed as is evidenced by my picture this morning. Caleb took interest in the amaryllis this year and we discussed it nearly every morning. He was in awe as it got ready to spring forth with color and majesty! Too dramatic? Not for him...it truly was a sight to behold.

So you won't think I'm a bit of a freak over this...let me explain a bit. And for those of you that already know I am a freak...just come with me on the jaunt. After all, you're the one choosing to read the post. ;)

When it's cold outside...things die.  All the green goes out of my world and well, it's depressing for me. I'm too sensitive for my own good, but alas, in addition to the inability for me to go outside and enjoy a moment in peace....I no longer have a feast of color to feed my inner self even from my window.

So in a sense, yes, I think too much...my amaryllis or paper white is my little 'garden of Eden'...for my soul. I look at it, think about God and the detailing. I see the green, it calms me and I get this wonderful surprise weeks and weeks later when it blooms.

I highly recommend this habit for yourself if you happen to be one that enjoys having something to feast on visually when you can't make it out of doors to study the botany of our world. I wouldn't say I'm a botanist or even a gardener so much...just a very, very avid admirer.

For some it's bamboo and it's growth rate (Luke!)...for some it's particular flowers, for some it's doing the digging and getting their hands in the dirt, for some it's the caregiving of the plant, for some it's the grandiose garden they can plan and then create with spectacular displays of color year 'round based on their plant choices.

For me...it's the watching, the waiting and then.....

The Miracle.

Abba, you're too good, too good. Hats off to You.

It's only been 10 years....geez.

Well, we're going skiing. I can't believe it's been 10 years and dare I say it...man, we look young in this photo. I'm pumped to hit the slopes again and secretly hoping I don't injure myself ;). I can't handle injury and well, it'll mess up my running. You should see how funny I am when I wear something with a heel on it to anywhere that has stairs. I know I look silly taking my time but stairs and I don't get along often. Just take a look at my medical records. I've tripped up and down them, several, several times. Then there was the dog that totally...well, anyway, weak ankles. A story for another time.

We head to Angel Fire this year and I've never been there. I used to be somewhat of an avid skier. I skied nearly every year. Not to the extent that my Sis did who actually lived in Colorado right out of college. Man, was she smart...but I did go as much as a Texan could aspire to.

I'm really excited about this trip though...really excited.

I'm in my almost mid 30s now and it's suddenly striking me that although I'm loving my 30s far more than my 20s...I'm aging. I am. I am bound and determined to take the attitude that that is a beautiful thing. But man, we get bombarded with so much air brushed, botoxed garbage, rail thin, anorexic looking stuff it's hard sometimes. I have one grandmother who has taken age in stride she's 85 and another who since I was a very little girl told me (she's 86), "Megan, don't ever get old."  I used to think at that young age, I want to, I want to grow up. We're always in a hurry at that age...but now I sort of get what she means...but I'm still not going to start up with the complaining. Sure, I'd like to improve some things, who wouldn't. But come on...we could all be in plastic surgery until the cows come home and then what...we look like Joan Rivers? (Sorry Joan, sorry but you did go a bit overboard)

Anywho, I'm hopping off that soapbox. I plan to age gracefully and happily. I just hope to be healthy and active...and do what God intended which is live life.

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.  John 10:10

That's all.

Man...I can't get over how young we look. :)

Trappings

I find myself gushing with tears often this time of year. It happens at the oddest of moments. From Santa at North Pole City telling the true story of Christmas to standing in line at some store hearing a sweet Christmas song come over the speaker system.

It's a bittersweet time for me and my family.

But what's causing most of the moisture, however, is the simple fact that God, Himself, came to Earth, put on the trappings of His creation and walked among us.

I've taken some time to study other religions on my own over the last few years. Mostly because I just felt a little shattered by life and because well, I really needed to do it. I should have done it long ago.

I still clung to my beliefs and felt inherently that I was a follower of Christ and that His works in me from the tender age of seven, were most definitely true.

However, I needed to see what all was offered and what those offerings entailed.

While my search or journey was not exhaustive, it was very valuable indeed. I firmly hold that every Believer should not follow blindly. I subscribe to the idea that for myself, a relationship with God unexamined is not a true relationship at all. All believers should know what they believe and why they believe it over everything else and all other choices.

Everyone should be schooled on what the world has to offer in alternatives so that they can defend the truth from a truly educated perspective. I think you see a lot of this in the New Testament as Paul does his best to speak to all peoples.

But I won't get on my soap box about that and I most certainly am no expert.

But nonetheless, no other religion claims what Christianity does nor does it offer what Christianity has to offer. None. Nada...zip and most certainly ZILCH.

I know that God is ever present, drawing every living breathing human being unto Him...but I also know the trappings of having been raised from a very young age to believe what I hold to.

I always wonder how it is that the miracle of He - can draw people out of darkness. The darkness that they themselves are immersed in culturally, socially and within the tight knit walls of their families.

Being raised Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist...they hold to their beliefs just as strongly as I do out of what they absorbed from the time they took their first breath. The conversions of others not raised in a predominantly Christian culture is a miracle I find most fascinating and mysterious!

But from what I learned in my search...no other religion or belief system offers a god that comes to the earth, that loves people so much that he (or even she in some cases), would become just as vulnerable as they are. There's a sort of an other worldliness about most religious systems with the human beings separate, the god being too good for them and the requirement that the human to aspire (most unsuccessfully) beyond what he or she is capable of in order to come into their presence.

Basically, the whole concept of GRACE is missing.

And without Grace, there's no hope whatsoever if you ask me.

But Christianity, has this spin against what they offer. It offers Jesus, who puts himself in the form of a tiny baby....the most fragile of all forms of humanity and lives life through our eyes. It's really and truly EARTH shattering news!

It causes me great and deep awe to think of Jesus being born to Mary who was more than likely around the age of 15. Not to mention the scandal Joseph may have had on his hands with a young wife, pregnant by another before their wedding day. Have you ever thought about what the punishment was for her being in that state? Most certainly it was death by stoning.

How strong they must have been and how ever-present the Spirit had to have been in their day to day lives in order for them to endure and triumph.

I think of all the circumstances from the government in rule at that time, to the mishaps that young parents find themselves in with their first born and how from the outside Jesus' arrival was by all appearances was a very complicated, controversial, and cataclysmic event.

Yet the Lord was hovering over every detail, protecting, providing and fulfilling His purpose.

All of this just deepens my tenderness towards Him. He was an artist putting Himself in His own painting I've heard it said. (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew) It's unfathomable!

Whenever I hear, Mary Did You Know? or Silent Night. I can't help but feel the rush of emotions causing me to want to cry my eyes out. When I stop to think of my own sons and how tender the relationship is. I think of being in Mary's shoes and how priceless this time is as I watch them grow bit by bit into what will one day be grown men.

I cannot help but stop and think of Mary feeling the same about Jesus. Proud over his first tooth, his first words, his first steps, ready with hugs when he falls, helping him learn, seeing him grow into a strong young man...

All these thoughts come home to me this time of year and while the grandest fact of all is that He died to pay for my sins...you can't dissect the path and the journey that led Him there. The mere fact that He became nothing for my sake...

How could He do all this for me?

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of the Father.

Philippians 2:6-11

Have a very Merry Christmas this year....I know I will.

LOVE AFTER LOVE

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger that was your self,
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

-Derek Walcott

CJ is what she'll always be to me...

FB disturbs me sometimes. Mainly because it'll throw an ad up that says I haven't chatted with Cindy (my roommate from OBU) lately...it asks me to post something on her wall. When the truth is, I can't talk to Cindy anymore...well, not in a two way conversation.

Cindy passed away this Summer unexplained. It could have been a number of things but so far it's "inconclusive". Whatever that means.

Cindy and I had just reconnected on FB. We'd gotten busy in our lives, in our marriages and with our children. We hadn't spoken on the phone since Ethan was born. Yet, I knew Cindy still.

Cindy and I did a lot of growing up together those 4 years at OBU. Went through broken hearts, happy times being free from a curfew and the woes and triumphs of college life. We liked being together and we hardly ever fought. I can only think of one occasion that we did and it resulted in no sleep because we stayed up in our dorm room until we had it worked out.

I'm sad now and then thinking of the hole she left behind when the good Lord took her up to Him this past Summer. But I also know, where Cindy is, she is whole, nothing can hurt her and she's happiest realizing her faith was true and her reward is seeing things with Him now.

But I do miss her. I know her family misses her even more. Cindy, if you can read this, I love you and I can't wait to see you again...have a Merry Christmas, your most favorite of holidays. What a way to spend it this year!

I broke my own rule...

Typically, I'm a stickler for not doing the Christmas thing until Thanksgiving has been properly celebrated. This year, I decided to bend the rule a bit and we put the trees up this week. And guess what? I'm going to even go further and set up my tree downstairs before THANKSGIVING. That's right, call the presses! I can't help it, with a living room and furniture and a place to celebrate Christmas this year and open presents just like we have a house...I'm all a twitter with delight and holiday cheer!

The house is really starting to come together...I'll have to blog some before photos soon when I have some time to hunt them out and sort them. It's been a long road but finally I have somewhere to let people sit and visit.

Next on my list for Santa, new dining room table and chairs....good thing I know Santa so very well! :)