Contentment

I cant think of much to blog about, most of you who read this blog read kristi's and have already read about our time together here in Cincinnati and seen all the pictures. I have been reading a really good book though and so maybe ill just post some of my favorite parts of it here for you. Its called Calm My Anxious Heart, and I love it! I really do suffer from anxiety or paranoia or something so this book is perfect for me, the worry wart. The book deals a lot with worrying, but also with contenment and being happy in your roles and relationships, and with who you are and what you have. Some of these are convicting, and some just enlightening.

"Contentment is essentially accepting from God's hand what He sends because we know that He is good and therefore it is good."

"Two women look through prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars."

Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Be careful what you dwell on for that you will surely become."

"You will never really enjoy other people, you will never have stable emotions, you will never lead a life of godly contentment, you will never conquer jealousy and love others as you should, until you thank God for making you the way he did."

"A Christian is a candidate for confinement and unspeakable suffering until her or she fully and completly forgives others, even the others may be in the wrong." this was a big chapter for me, forgiveness. Not because I dont want or like to forgive but because I dont think I really do it like God wants me to. I may get over what somebody has done or continuously do, but I dont let it go to the point where I stop identifying them with what they do that hurts me. Hebrews 12:15 says, See to it that no one misses the grace of God. I need to forgive and see those people the way Christ does.

A.W. Tozer, one of my favorite writers said, "Within the human heart things have taken over. God's gifts now take the place of God and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution."

"Happiness is getting what we want, Contentment is wanting what we get."

ok this chapter was one of my favorites, read this poem by a 14 year old

It was spring but it was summer i wanted; the warm days and the great outdoors
it was summer but it was fall i wanted; the colorful leaves and the cool dry air
it was fall but it was winter i wanted; the beautiful snow and the joy of the holiday season
it was now winter but it was spring i wanted; the warmth and the blossoming of nature
i was a child but it was adulthhood i wanted; the freedom and the respect
i was twenty but it was thirty i wanted; to be mature and sophisticated
i was middle-aged but it was twenty i wanted; the youth and the free spirit
i was retired but it was middle-age that i wanted; the presence of mind withouth limitations
my life was over but i never got what i wanted.

how many people do this, walk around waiting for the next season of life to come, or wishing they could go back.

"You can mimic goodness, but godliness cannot be imitated."

"anxiety is that which divides and distracts the sould, that which diverts us from present duty to weary calculations of how to meet conditions that may never arrive. Its the habit of crossing the bridges before we reach them."

"worry doesnt empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."

"worry is like a rocking chair, it will give you something to do but it wont get you anywhere"

"The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

"Faith is the bulwark that keeps us strong even when we're assailed by agonizing thoughts about what might happen or by what has happened."

Contentment is a soul sufficiency available to everyone, a peace separate from our circumstances

Contentment comes from a proper relationship to God, not from a response to the circumstances

"Neither go back in fear and misgiving to the past, nor in anxiety and forecasting to the future, but lie quiet under His hand, having no will but His."

and last, i love this poem by Helen Keller. A Lot of times, esp us women, complain about our "frame" and when i read this i was so convicted to stop complaining. Everytime I look down at my chunky monkey legs i thank God that they both move instead of wining about them. try to be grateful with whats so awesome about how God made you instead of the tiny things that you dont consider perfect.

They took away what should have been my eyes
(But I rememberd Milton's Paradies)
They took away what should have been my ears
(Beethoven came and wiped away my tears)
They took away what should have been my tongue
(But I had talked to God when I was young)
He would not let them take away my soul,
Posessing that, I still possess the whole.


I dont know if any of this means anything to anybody but me right now, but this is just a lot of what God has been teaching me and I just love it all so much. Everybody have a good weekend!

happy early birthday to my husband!

Well, i was planning on going car shopping with justin around his birthday and getting him a new car but the deal just was too good to pass up, so its a little early of a bday gift. that’s right, justin no longer drives Ese the green machine! he has a new truck! im really so happy for him. he has had the same “piece” since he was 17, its so messed up and everyday i worry that he will be driving it somewhere and it will just explode. justin doesnt really need a nice car or anything, he really was fine driving a piece of junk, but i really think he deserved a little spoiling. it was such a good deal and was a “special” truck on their lot because the dealer bought it for a specific customer and then the customer didnt buy it. so since its a new 06 and the new 08’s are coming out soon, this dealer basically wanted to move it off their lot and was selling if for super cheap. God is seriously good and we are so thankful. This is the truck justin has wanted since we were in college and never thought he would be able to afford it and its got everything he wanted on it and it was affordable. Its so neat to see how it all worked out, and just in time, Ese could kick it any day now. I just wanted to share that all with you since its sorta a neat story. God always provides and blesses us!