“When you can think of yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear, you are near contentment.”
This morning Anna and I sat around for a bit planning more of the changes we’d like to do in our house. There’s a kitchen makeover we want to tackle soon. We want to replace windows and doors. The living room needs a better entertainment center setup. We want to tackle a fireplace renovation this week. All of these things are so much fun to work on together, but then it’s easy to become completely overwhelmed with the big picture of it all, and one thing leads into another needing needing to be done .. and so on.
While these things are fun to do together, and they bring joy to our life to work on together as well, the best part of it all is that we get to do it together. Yes, it does enrich our lives more through added beauty in our home. But the fact that we get to work on it as a team just brings a smile to my face. And then I remember, that Anna and I have all the time in the world that we need to do these things. I can be content with things the way they are, or the way we change them. That makes the overwhelming aspect of it fade away a bit, I take a deep breath, and remember that it’s the act of doing these things together that is what really matters. The enriching experiences in our lives of doing things together and with other people, building relationships, and blessing another’s life (our spouse or those around us).
It’s another reason why we smile in our job every day … because we’re able to bless someone else’s life in a small way. Even though we’re providing them a service, we’re leaving them with a glimpse of the things that really matter in their lives – the relationship they have with the person they love. It certainly does make it all worthwhile.
Contentment. Realizing that everything we have or need in life is right here, right now. We just need to recognize the things that really matter and sieze the moment that they come to us in.
A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being yourself before God. Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough. 1 Tim 6:6-7
