"To be or not to be.." is the opening phrase of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
As silly as it may sound, I sometimes ask myself this question, to be this or to be that. Lately, I have had many friends and acquaintance's either getting engaged or married, and as much as I long for it to be my time for all of that, I know that God has a plan for me and I have to be content.
Over the the past couple years I have accepted where I am in life and I am content with where God has be right now. So being content has been on my mind and heart lately and it is actually what was part of my quiet time this morning.
Contentment is the ultimate acceptance of yourself, your surroundings, your past, and your future. For a believer finding contentment should be effortless, yet getting to the state of contentment is not an easy task.
Satisfaction hen you have very real unmet needs, freedom from worry when you have overwhelming concerns, patience in letting God work when pressures abound--these seem like impossible dreams. God chose not to give us contentment as a gift. He chose to rather teach us to be content as you allow Him to be ruler in your life.
Contentment is learned. Philippians 4:11 says, "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." Paul is teaching the Philippians more about the providence and provision of God and the expectancy and contentment of the believer who would wait on the Lord. Believers are to be "content" not WITH circumstances but IN circumstances. This is something that is developed over time.
As you trust Gods gifts to be sufficient and His assignments to be appropriate, you can accept the way that you look, the means that you have been given, and so on.
Dissatisfaction with areas in your life that can be changed, within divine guidelines, may help you to see that something is missing. I find myself craving God when I don't have my Quiet Time and I am not in His word on a daily basis, and for me that causes dissatisfaction and discontentment.
Instead of adopting a complaining spirit about where you are in your life, take your dissatisfaction's, worries, and concerns to the Lord. Being willing in the meantime to be content as you walk the path that God has for you.
We must trust that God has given us everything that we need for this moment in time.
Friday, July 31, 2015
Friday, July 17, 2015
Did They Really Say That?
Have you ever been taunted by thoughts such as, "They don't like me.", "You aren't liked.", "Why did you just say that?", "No one cares, everyone thinks that you are annoying."
I have found myself tormented by destructive thoughts such as these. These thoughts are dangerous and they are toxic to our souls. I was having a conversation a while back and the other person said, "I know you think..." I paused and thought to myself, how do you know what I am thinking?
All too often we assume what people are thinking and as women we do this way too often. People are not assessing us and thinking about us as much we think they are. As Christian women we need to hold our thoughts to a higher standard, but we fall to the ways of sin and we allow these toxic thoughts to manipulate us into feeling insecure and inadequate about ourselves.
Philippians 4:6,8 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God....Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things."
We are instructed to think and to have our minds on constructive thoughts, not destructive.
I will be the first to tell you that changing from the toxic thoughts to constructive thoughts is not an easy task. There are some ways that helped me to change my thought pattern.
The first is something that my mom told me growing up, Did someone actually say that, or am I assuming they are thinking it? If they did not actually say it, and you are assuming it, that is destructive to you and unfair to the other person. If they actually said it, then that needs to be handled with that person. The second is Being actively involved with truth. When we spend more time filling our thoughts and our mind with God's truth, there is less room for those destructive and toxic thoughts to creep in. Finally, are there people or situations that I am surrounding myself with that are encouraging the toxic thoughts? Taking a step back from situations and/or people that are encouraging these thoughts can be difficult. I have been in that situation and it is not easy, but having other people who are immersing themselves with God's truth makes this transition much easier.
Things that we encounter in our lives can be much more difficult than just doing the three things above, but this is a great place to start to keep our minds and thoughts pure and constructive rather than toxic and destructive.
I have found myself tormented by destructive thoughts such as these. These thoughts are dangerous and they are toxic to our souls. I was having a conversation a while back and the other person said, "I know you think..." I paused and thought to myself, how do you know what I am thinking?
All too often we assume what people are thinking and as women we do this way too often. People are not assessing us and thinking about us as much we think they are. As Christian women we need to hold our thoughts to a higher standard, but we fall to the ways of sin and we allow these toxic thoughts to manipulate us into feeling insecure and inadequate about ourselves.
Philippians 4:6,8 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God....Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things."
We are instructed to think and to have our minds on constructive thoughts, not destructive.
I will be the first to tell you that changing from the toxic thoughts to constructive thoughts is not an easy task. There are some ways that helped me to change my thought pattern.
The first is something that my mom told me growing up, Did someone actually say that, or am I assuming they are thinking it? If they did not actually say it, and you are assuming it, that is destructive to you and unfair to the other person. If they actually said it, then that needs to be handled with that person. The second is Being actively involved with truth. When we spend more time filling our thoughts and our mind with God's truth, there is less room for those destructive and toxic thoughts to creep in. Finally, are there people or situations that I am surrounding myself with that are encouraging the toxic thoughts? Taking a step back from situations and/or people that are encouraging these thoughts can be difficult. I have been in that situation and it is not easy, but having other people who are immersing themselves with God's truth makes this transition much easier.
Things that we encounter in our lives can be much more difficult than just doing the three things above, but this is a great place to start to keep our minds and thoughts pure and constructive rather than toxic and destructive.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)