A word or two about contentment

We're having a lovely morning. Thursdays are our "wild days", and, while we try and take a walk around the neighborhood daily, on these mornings we go out a little further.

We are so blessed here, in this suburban area. Within less than a mile, there are two small nature preserves, both with marshes, one with a pond. How perfect for a homeschooling family like ours!

I used to wish we lived more in "the country". I had romanticized and idealized having at least five acres, with a few goats and chickens and lots of open space for kids to mess around in.

A sweet, honest friend of mine tried this for a few years. She has recently moved away with her husband and family and is having a wonderful time enjoying the next "chapter" in their journey. The things she had hoped for in the rural lifestyle came at a great price for her, and she even told me that her family had treasured more God's natural beauty before they had their own land to look after. She was not the first to have expressed this sentiment.

Things always look a little better when viewed from afar, don't they? Impressionists have taken advantage of our tendency toward myopia. Up close, the shortcomings are much more apparent.

There are many challenges to living on a single income with lots of children to care for (remembering that we live by faith is not one of them). We don't have a lot of extra money for clothing, etc., so we often find ourselves "making do". I almost laughed until I cried once when I read how another homeschooling mother, one who was a prolific writer, prepared her children to attend a Christmas party. Her first step was to go through their clothes and find the ones that had the least amount of stains and tears!--Oh, how many of us could relate to this! Another honest soul wrote how she decorated a table with a basket lined with a stained napkin, making sure it was folded so the stain wouldn't show.

In our satellite TV years I liked watching a show claiming to "design on a dime"--how did they guess my decorating budget?

And yet, I have learned to be content in every situation to which I find myself.

For one thing, God is more concerned with our growth than our immediate comfort. When I was home with my first three small children, no car, I saw the world passing me by. I mentioned to a friend who owned a second car how very fortunate she was, and she surprised me by saying she wished she didn't have one; the temptation to "go,go,go..." was sometimes too great, and she missed the sweet days she had enjoyed at home. I took this as an admonition and settled myself in to purposely take pleasure in being a "homebody".

Joseph must have struggled in this same way. Sold into slavery and far away from his family, residing in a foreign land and culture, he must have spent many nights crying himself to sleep with longings for what he could not have, no matter how he wished and prayed for it. God helped him, not only to be content, but to become productive in the midst of his sufferings. The Lord even showed him that his captivity was for a blessing, for the saving of a whole nation!

Being at home, many times without transportation, and without lots of the things we have falsely understood to bring us happiness, we have many choices each day. How do we view our world? Is it full of lack, or provision? Will we find disappointment, or opportunity? Will we become defeated, or challenged? Will we rest in God today?

One way to start is to begin to look at what we do have and be thankful!

If we have two changes of good clothing, we are richer than most people in the world. If we have three meals a day, and if we have more than three types of food each meal, we are feeding ourselves like kings and queens compared to the impoverished of the world. If we can choose to stay home with our children, and if we can have as many as the Lord will give us, and if we take comfort in the freedom to homeschool them, we are living in opulence beyond the wildest imaginations of even those in many affluent European countries!

The truth is, we are probably not using what we have on hand to its fullest potential. Joseph would admonish us to be better stewards of what we already possess, don't you think?

For instance, I have been concerned that my little girls are running out of pretty, feminine clothing to wear. This is important to me, since I believe that God made them male and female, and that I want to be a picture of His intent to a watching world, and so I try and dress my boys like boys, and my girls like girls. Besides, my girls and I just like being pretty around the house!

I have taken inventory on what we already have on hand, and realized we had much more than I had previously thought, but little hands did not always put clothing away well, and sometimes even stuffed items to keep from putting them away at all (and they tend to wear the same things over and over)! So the first step for me has been taking care of the things I already have, ironing, re-hanging and categorizing skirts, shirts and dresses (we hang everything up in our house except for undies and jammies).

The next step has been to look at ways I can add to our existing wardrobe by re-engineering and creating new things from old. One of the ways I have accomplished this in the past was to take the jeans someone was so gacious to give to us and turn them into skirts. This time my oldest daughter (at home) has developed an easy way to make Regency-style dresses using elasticized waists and necklines. Since she has been stock-piling new and near-new bed sheets she finds in thrift stores, it is now the time to use these things up! So yesterday our sweet 12yo daughter began wearing the first of what we hope to be a new wardrobe for all the girls of our home--a sweet, empire-wasted dress made from a bedsheet with an off-white background and delicate delft-blue flowers--she doesn't ever want to take it off!--and it only cost us a little time and about $2.00!

Out of our necessity God is blessing us beyond just having "stuff". He is also giving us the pleasure of creating and fellowshipping with each other in the process. No one in the Paris fashion industry will be impressed, but we will be happy each time we walk past a mirror with a deep satisfaction that we could never have felt if we had bought some awful modern dress from off of a rack in a retail store.

Another example would be our "daily bread". In older times, when in order to have a chicken dinner you had to chase down the chicken (or chickens), cut off its head, gut it, pluck its feathers, and finally cook it, folks learned to be content with simple foods.

We are blessed to have a fabulous Mexican restaurant nearby. The dishes there are satisfying and full of flavor, but are not fancy, nor are they made up of exotic ingredients. Beans, rice, onions, chilis, meat, cheese and of course tortillas, are mixed and fixed in all sorts of different combinations that make one's mouth water. The Mexican families I know very seldom sample different sorts of food as their regular family fare. A Caucasian gentleman I know married a woman from Mexico City, and he told us he never tired of her homemade tortillas and refried beans for dinner!

I have had a tendency to over-complicate my meal planning. My husband is happier when I only have a few dishes to offer, but while I try to accommodate him, I have thought it my job to give my children some variety. I have discovered that I never needed to work so hard. At least three days a week now we are having a pot of beans--with onions, chili seasoning, diced tomatoes, onions and peppers, cooked in a crock pot to be ready for lunch, and putting add-ons such as tortillas, corn chips, cheese, salsa and sour cream on the table for each child to choose. My 16yo son claims it is still his favorite type of meal! On the alternate days we are having PBJ's, popcorn, and carrots and celery--how simple, but how delicious!

The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil. (Proverbs 19:23)

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:6-12)

We serve a wonderful, creative Father in Heaven!