Contentment
Yesterday I read a Blog about Contentment where the author quoted Philippians 4:12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I was going to leave her a comment about Contentment. However, as I started writing the comment I changed my mind and decided to write in my Blog about Contentment.
Contentment is sometimes difficult to maintain. I would say that yesterday I was content with the way my life was going. However, the other day I learned that last week, while in the van, my Foley bag was leaking. So now the van has an unpleasant odor. I was going to ask my Home Aid, who comes twice a week to help me with bathing, dressing, and light house work, to back the van out of the garage. I had thought I might be able to wash the van floor cleaning up the mess left by the Foley. But, wouldn't you know it today I am having trouble breathing. Every time I do anything I feel my heart rate going up and I get short of breath and panicky. So I guess the van will stay in the garage and I will sit in the den and try not to fret about it.
These are the times I struggle with the concept of Contentment. That is if Contentment can be called a concept. To be dependent on someone else to do thing for you, things that you used to be able to do yourself, makes it hard sometimes for me to be content.
I just spent the last hour searching the web looking for articles about contentment, content while handicapped, and accepting one's disability and was amazed at the number of articles. I did a quick sampling of the articles and didn't find one that talked about Contentment with being handicapped. Maybe I didn't use the correct words or phrases in my search. There were a lot of articles about being content in the sense of not being envious of others, or about accepting your status, or your position in this world. Most of these appeared to be sermons written by ministers with no physical handicap. I did find one article written by a person with cerebral palsy who was in a wheelchair. Basically she wrote that you just have to deal with you limitations and get on with living.
So did the articles written by ministers miss the point about Contentment? Were they talking about a different type of Contentment? What about the article written by a person with cerebral palsy who was in a wheelchair, who basically said deal with it and move on?
Now that I have reached the end of this Blog it has dawned on me that maybe I am not dealing with Contentment. Rather today I am dealing with frustration. I will say that writing this has been beneficial. I have gotten over my feeling of frustration and am once more feeling content with my lie.
Does this make any sense?
Oh and By The Way the van is still in the garage and the Home Aid has left. So the van waits for someone else to clean up yet another of my messes.
Contentment is sometimes difficult to maintain. I would say that yesterday I was content with the way my life was going. However, the other day I learned that last week, while in the van, my Foley bag was leaking. So now the van has an unpleasant odor. I was going to ask my Home Aid, who comes twice a week to help me with bathing, dressing, and light house work, to back the van out of the garage. I had thought I might be able to wash the van floor cleaning up the mess left by the Foley. But, wouldn't you know it today I am having trouble breathing. Every time I do anything I feel my heart rate going up and I get short of breath and panicky. So I guess the van will stay in the garage and I will sit in the den and try not to fret about it.
These are the times I struggle with the concept of Contentment. That is if Contentment can be called a concept. To be dependent on someone else to do thing for you, things that you used to be able to do yourself, makes it hard sometimes for me to be content.
I just spent the last hour searching the web looking for articles about contentment, content while handicapped, and accepting one's disability and was amazed at the number of articles. I did a quick sampling of the articles and didn't find one that talked about Contentment with being handicapped. Maybe I didn't use the correct words or phrases in my search. There were a lot of articles about being content in the sense of not being envious of others, or about accepting your status, or your position in this world. Most of these appeared to be sermons written by ministers with no physical handicap. I did find one article written by a person with cerebral palsy who was in a wheelchair. Basically she wrote that you just have to deal with you limitations and get on with living.
So did the articles written by ministers miss the point about Contentment? Were they talking about a different type of Contentment? What about the article written by a person with cerebral palsy who was in a wheelchair, who basically said deal with it and move on?
Now that I have reached the end of this Blog it has dawned on me that maybe I am not dealing with Contentment. Rather today I am dealing with frustration. I will say that writing this has been beneficial. I have gotten over my feeling of frustration and am once more feeling content with my lie.
Does this make any sense?
Oh and By The Way the van is still in the garage and the Home Aid has left. So the van waits for someone else to clean up yet another of my messes.
posted by UP at 7:24 AM
2 Comments:
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I really needed to read this today. I hope you can get someone to clean up the mess for you soon. How frustrating that must be. I'm visiting due to a link from Mari-Nanci. I haven't been here before. I must read some more...
I think that contentment is more than simple acceptance. It is deeper, I think. It is an incorporation of all that God gives us into our life and who we are. Until it is fully part of us and cannot be uprooted we are only accepting it like weed interloping in the flower garden and it can be pulled up and the soil disturbed and discontent run rampant again...Once the roots are deepened to the place it cannot be uprooted then we know that we are content in the circumstance.
Post a Comment
<< Home