Prescription for Contentment

The other day before heading out to Ashley's volleyball practice I was looking over all the books in my small library. I knew in my heart I was needing to read something that would grab my heart again. Something to give me drive towards hope and focus. I picked up the book by Linda Dillow "Calm my Anxious Heart" and that evening I lost myself in almost half the book. Her words captured me, calmed me, and made me cry.

I would like to think I have a content heart. I would like to think I walk around not wanting, but I dont. Her illustrations of single women craving a marriage, married women craving to be with another man, or mothers wanting to travel, grabbed my attention. Its that simple illustration of 'the grass is always greener'.

How many of us can walk each day in a state of complete and utter acceptance and fulfillment for where God has us? I'd venture to guess the majority of us fail in this in almost an hourly regularity.

She gave a prescription at the beginning of the book from a woman who served as a missionary in Africa in 120+ degree weather. She had samplings from her diary and this is what she came up with:

Prescription to contentment

Never allow yourself to complain about anything--not even the weather.

Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.

Never compare your lot with anothers.

Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.

Never dwell on tomorrow-remember that tomorrow is God's not ours.

I framed these words and placed them both on my desk here and at work. It almost seems like to much to bite off all at once, so I'm choosing to work on one a day. I write this in a sense of commitment to work towards enjoying the day as it is and not wanting for something else. I write this to find that greater peace the Lord wants us all to have. Can you imagine our world if we all worked towards this simple prescription? What a place we would have!