Wednesday, April 2, 2008

considering + contentment

I am having a very bright + healthy week compared to the black hole that was last week...
lately, my chronic strings of migraines have really made me blue.
i work very hard at keeping positive, to look on the bright side,
but it's always just that...it's work to keep on reminding myself it that it could be worse...
that everything happens for a reason, ect. ect.

but now i'm having a pain-free week and it's easier to be optimistic.
the little storm cloud of pain hasn't decended again, yet ...and i wait.
here i come to the fork in the road.
i wait for pain to come. it has become so normal, i wake up daily wondering if it will be a healthy or a sick day,
i wonder if the little ache in my temple will turn into something worse, and i wait for it to come.
on the other hand, i have come to appreciate the good days all the more.

i am struck by how often in the past day or two i have come across the word contentment.

i found a scrap of paper in my purse today that simply stated:
"...content to have less health, so we can have more grace..."
i'm not sure when or where i wrote this down, but it strikes me today, as just how i'm feeling.

one of my favorite verses in the bible has always been:
"but godliness with contentment is great gain"
and in my constant struggle for both, it is again, an important reminder.

a newsletter i receive daily at work, having nothing really to do with anything spiritual or noteworthy was found in my junk mail folder yesterday, it started with a simple quote by ben franklin:
"content makes poor men rich, discontentment makes rich men poor." so true, so true...

in my search and roundabout study of contentment, i decided to google the word for further inspiration, the following are words of wisdom i felt appropriate enough to share:

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” -Frederick Keonig

“There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment.”
-Swami Sivananda

i have by no means fully grasped this concept...but tonight i am reminded that it isn't in sickness or in health that i am made content, but only through Christ's grace.

2 comments:

Justin said...

You should keep the Swami Sivananda quote in your purse, so that you can be content with your name.

Stinkin' Swami's.

j

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