Contentment

For so long, we have been taught that acceptance and finding contentment is the same as settling.

That accepting where we are in life and finding joy in it is somehow a bad thing.

We are constantly told to work harder, hustle faster, be more courageous, be louder, and make more money. So many of us keep trying to level up and we spend so much of our lives trying to step on that next rung of the ladder that we fail to see how far we've come. We fail to realize that the place we are today is often what we prayed for not that long ago in the past.

Everyone wants to be happy, but happiness is a fleeting feeling and if we aren't careful, we can spend our whole lives chasing those fleeting moments.

But contentment is a state of being: where we learn to accept ourselves for who we are and our life for what we've made of it. Contentment is slow and steady and allows us to find grace for our mistakes and joy in all things.

Acceptance doesn't have to mean you're giving up or waving the white flag. Contentment doesn't mean you can't keep hustling or working hard-- it just means that you can finally find joy along the journey.

When we focus on the noise, on the next big thing, on the money or the promise of success that will never be enough, there is no joy. There is no joy aside from God.

The world is angry enough. I am learning to accept who and where I am, what I've become, and to be content with the life He has given me. It's not easy but it's far more joyful than the anxiety of trying to fight the things I cannot change.

"Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:11-13

Richelle