easy for you, but do not stop saying ‘yes’ to God.” I live my life believing life is hard and I don’t expect to be exempt from those hardships. I am at the same time, so thankful I have a God that pours out His love and grace to help me through those times.
When I was twenty years old my dad died. It was four months before I was to be married. At that point, there was nothing I wanted more than for my father to be at my wedding. Yes, I was sad, but I never asked, “Why me?” or thought, “It isn’t fair.” People die every day, it is part of the fall, it is not my place to question and besides why not me? I miss my dad; yet, I am thankful he met my husband-to-be and had given his blessing on our marriage. These memories help me to see God’s blessing and say “yes” to Him.
Although this was an obvious hard time, contentment came through saying “yes” to God and no to self pity. Contentment isn’t just needed for major events though, my everyday life has plenty of hard times to deal with. These times can make doing what I feel like doing seem like a better option than what God says to do.
For example, when my husband disappoints me by ignoring my to-do list and prioritizing his list, then I want to be very sarcastic with him. I suddenly want to prioritize my to-do’s over the man, my husband. The extra effort of doing what God wants and speaking to him in a way, say I would a guest in our home and honoring him is not natural, but it does benefit our whole
household. After all, a peaceful home is much higher on my list of priorities that Todd’s pulling out a weed whacker and cleaning up the edges of the yard.
Four children is another definition of a hard time for me. My
biggest battle rages in my mind. Whether I view my children as blessings from God that I have the privilege of shaping for a few short years or as interruptions, keeping me from doing what I want. I remind myself I’ll have plenty of time when my bedrooms aren’t so full to do anything my heart desires. Actually, I’ve chosen to drop the things in my life that cause me to shoo away
my children or wish they were in bed. No, I haven’t put off cooking and cleaning until the children are grown but I have lowered my standards some and use these chores as training opportunities. It is very important to me that they grow up knowing how to work
hard and on the flip side I know teaching that requires a lot of hard work from me.
Saying “yes” to God with how I deal with my husband and children does produce contentment!
One more quote tommorrow.