Contentment in All Things

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

Philippians 4:11

It's often hard to teach your children what you yourself have not mastered. Yet, in spite of my own struggles, I can't cry "disqualified!" and think the Lord would accept this as a worthy excuse for failing to train our children in a certain area. Instead, my very weakness should drive me all the more to mature and grow in His wisdom and strength, that I may not suffer weariness in teaching our children and spurring them on to more and more reflect the image of their Lord and Savior. I don't want to cause my little ones to stumble, yet, so often as a Mom, I feel like the main character in Stepping Heavenward, when she lamented, "I mean that I am in a disheartened mood, weary of going round and round in circles, committing the same sins, uttering the same confessions, and making no advance."

The question is how to teach my Little Bit to be content with that one serving of cookie when I myself want at least three brownies...to teach my sons to be content with the size of their bedroom when I often grumble about the lack of space in our home for all of our "things"...to teach my children to joyfully complete their chores when I complain that "I just cleaned that up!" How do I tell them to be satisfied with having some item later when there are so many things I want NOW? "Don't you have enough of "fill -in- the- blank?" I say, as I search Amazon for just one more book..because you know I don't have enough of those. And so it often is that the sins that so frustrate and grieve me in my children are the very ones that have a firm place in my own heart.

To teach our children to have that quiet rest inside when their circumstances aren't to their liking, to teach them to have peace when God's will is painful, to teach them to surrender their wants and desires for that which God has provided...these are hard things, but without such peace and contentment, they'll live their lives constantly waiting "for the next thing," never able to enjoy and delight in where God has them now.

A couple of books have inspired me in their practical exhortations for cultivating contentment, Stepping Heavenward by Elisabeth Prentiss and Spiritual Depression by D. Martyn Lloyd -Jones. Reflecting the wisdom of God's Word, the following points offer helpful instruction, but I am the one who has to apply them, relying on the grace of God to help me to "walk in the spirit" and not fulfill the "lusts of the flesh." No quick and easy fix here, just Godly encouragement based in the Word of God.

"Four Steps That Lead to Peace"~ from Stepping Heavenward

1) "Be desirous of doing the will of another, rather than your own."
2) "Choose always to have less, rather than more."
3) "Seek always to the lowest place and to be inferior to everyone." (Is anyone cringing at that one?)
4) "Wish always, and pray, that the will of God may be wholly fulfilled in you."

In his chapter titled "Learning to be Content," in the book Spiritual Depression, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains that Paul had learned to be content "by working out a great argument" that reflects the following truths.

1) "Conditions are always changing, therefore I must obviously not be dependent upon conditions."

2) "What matters supremely and vitally is my soul and my relationship to God--that is the first thing."

3) "God is concerned about me as my Father, and nothing happens to me apart from God. Even the very hairs of my head are all numbered. I must never forget that."

4) "God's will and God's ways are a great mystery, but I know that whatever He wills or permits is of necessity for my good."

5) "Every situation in life is the unfolding of some manifestataion of God's love and goodness. Therefore my business is to look for this peculiar manifestation of God's goodness and kindness and to be prepared for surprises and blessings because 'His ways are not my ways, neither His thoughts my thoughts.' What, for example, is the great lesson that Paul learned in the matter of the thorn in the flesh? It is that: 'When I am weak then am I strong.' Paul was taught through physical weakness this manifestation of God's grace."

6) "I must regard circumstances and conditions, not in and of themselves therefore, but as a part of God's dealing with me in the work of perfecting my soul and bringing me to final perfection."

7) "Whatever my conditions may be at this present moment they are only temporary, they are only passing, and they can never rob me of the joy and the glory that ultimately await me with Christ."

Pressing On,
Queen Mom

(I highly recommend both of the above mentioned books and will post a review next week of Spiritual Depression)