Sunday Snippets: Are We There Yet?!

1 Timothy 6:6 "But godliness with contentment is great gain."

1 Corinthians 7:17 “But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches.”

I was talking with a dear friend this last week, and an interesting subject came up. She mentioned something she was guilty of doing that I TOTALLY related to as well!! All throughout life, we look forward to things. (That's not the bad part, it's just a fact. ;) As children, we look forward to Sunday School when we can see our friends. We look forward to our birthday, or Christmas, or maybe the beginning of summer break.

As we grow older, we look forward to things even more intensely. We just yearn after different things than birthday cake. We look forward to future stages of life. Sound familiar? As teenagers, we are looking forward to graduating and being done with the tedious grind of school. Then we graduate, and if we are 'single' we look forward to marriage. (This is a big one for a lot of us young women. Not all, but lots.) We look forward to getting a raise or promotion, or a different, bigger and better job altogether. We want to "upgrade" everything...from smartphones to airline tickets--and we look forward to that future day when we'll have the money to do so. The money to live life like the party it's supposed to be, right?

Let's think about this mindset for a moment. When you graduated and got your first job, was it really so much better than the "tedious grind of school"? Uh, no. Actually not. It's a lot longer of a grind per day, plus you don't get the entire summer to goof off. If you're lucky, you might get three weeks of vacation time in the entire year. 

How about when you upgraded your smartphone to the biggest and best? There was a biggerest and bestest already out in stores by the time yours was 2 months old. (And yes, I'm aware that those are not words. Thank you for your concern, grammar cops. ;)

It seems to me that we spend so much time longing for the future, that we miss the blessings of being content, and being thankful for the stage of life we are in right now!

One major area I do this in is that of a relationship. The concept of marriage is one that is so sparkly and shiny with joy, that I forget everything I have heard about marriage being difficult, uphill work sometimes! I tend to always focus on the wonderful and romantic parts of marriage, rather than realizing that it's not all dark chocolate, rose bouquets, and perfect date nights. ;) There will be times that we will disagree, or I'll be feeling cranky and tired and snap at him, then cry. I'll leave things in the oven too long sometimes, and the smoke alarm will go off. There will be broken dishes and stubbed toes and clogged toilets, just like there are now. He'll come home exhausted and grumpy once in a while, and I'll need to learn to deal properly with that. I'll miss my family, especially the young ones. It will be different. And I need to be preparing myself now!! There will be wonderful, incredible things about marriage, I know. But. I put it on way too big and beautiful of a pedestal sometimes, instead of realizing that it will be only through God's grace that I will be able to be a good wife, and a help meet for whatever man God has for me.

I have grown better in this area in the last couple of years. I can honestly say that for the majority of the time, I am truly happy to be at home, serving God in the stage of life He has me in right now. However, there are days when I start being discontent, and once that seed is planted, it grows so quickly! I need to work on valuing the time I have today, right now. To quote what my friend said a few days ago:

I need to remember to live in the moment and not take present comforts for granted, nor future dreams at face-value.

That pretty much sums it up. Let's trust God to bring the future in His own time, and stop trying to hurry it up. Time is not going to move any faster just because you want to graduate, get married, or upgrade! ;) Live right now, right here. Redeem the time, for the days are evil. If you have godliness with contentment, you have great gain.

Mykaela