Finally Content

Today is my first official day off! Although school ended a couple of days ago, this morning was the first day that I got to sleep in. My son served me breakfast in bed, and all I could say was wow! I am awed by my attitude toward summer. Usually I end the school year frazzled, yet reflective. I think about all the days that went wrong and what I could have done better or different. But this year I am satisfied. Everything in my life is absolutely fine. At least I am content with the goals that I reached and the ones that I missed but still learned from. I've had time to reflect and accept that we can often focus on the wrong thing and miss the blessings right in front of us.

When I was younger and lacked the wisdom that I now have, I didn't really enjoy life. I was always looking for the next step in my life, like when you're twelve and can't wait until you turn thirteen because you think that teen life is much better than where you are and that you will be free and more priviledged. Or like when your kids are little and you can't wait for them to grow up and get out of the way, we wish our lives away or we work our lives away because we believe that where we want to be is much grander than where we are. Often we spend our days counting down the next moment that we fail to see the beauty of today. I really missed out on a lot of precious moments because I thought that happiness was just around the corner and that if I could just get to the next phase, next accomplishment, next economic status, next stage of life then my life would be grand and I would be happy. But the truth is that, life was already grand, and I could have been happy if I had taken time to smell those roses, to notice what God was teaching me and take those lessons as an act of His love. Some of those moments are gone and lost forever; others I have had to relive because I didn't get it the first time around.

But today I am different. I am happy and life could not be better. Don't get me wrong things are not perfect. I could use more money or get a promotion or live in a better place, but that would not make me happier or my life better. It would just make me busier and more anxious to do the next great thing. Right now I have my life, health, and strength. I am blessed with a good job and my debt is manageable. But most of all, I have the wisdom to know that God is good, and that He knows right where I am. God is in control of my life and there is nothing that gets by Him. I know that there will be trials and lessons and successes and failures, but through it all God is still God and He is always good! I have learned that in this life things will not be perfect, but if we are still God will work things according to His divine, perfect will for our lives. I have learned to trust that when things don't go the way I think that they should or the way I planned, God has a greater purpose and plan and only He knows how or why things must turn the way they do. So when things go ary or life is interrupted, be still and know that God is God.

" Be anxious for nothing, but through prayer and supplication, make your requests known unto the Lord."

"Delight thyself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your Heart." (P.S. - More of Him)

Today, as you face its beauty and its pain, choose to be content. Celebrate your blessings anyway. Don't wait for some grand good to happen, decide to trust God in the midst of it all. Remember "they that wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength". Take it up a notch, say a prayer for someone who's rushing into the next moment trying to escape their pain of today. Watch God bless you and them!