New Life and Discontent

I have been trying to decide if I was going to post this or not, but I think I will just post it and leave it out there in case someone else needs to read it.

I love Spring - it brings new life (especially this year!) and it displays God's beauty and creation like no other season to me.  But for some reason Spring always brings with it a short season of discontent for me.  I was talking to a friend yesterday and she agreed it was the same for her.

You see, with Spring comes the desire to change things - to make things new.  Not just in our lives, but in those things around us - our material things.  Well, for most of us, those things are not always an option.  We may be able to do one or two projects, but for a lot of us, we have a long list of things that we would like to improve or change around our homes.  This is the time of year that I start focusing on those things.  I tend to look at what others have, or at what others are doing and I begin to covet those things.  When I begin to covet those things, it makes me unhappy with the things that I do have.  When I become unhappy with the things I do have, I become discontent.  When I become discontent, I'm not very pleasant to be around.

It hit me this year as I started to feel the discontent creep in, that I can stop it before it begins.  I can anticipate it coming and choose not to let it in.  It hit me too late this year and a little bit crept in, but I caught it early!

I was doing a devotion on a Fresh Start yesterday and and it really got me thinking about this issue.  I look around my life and I see a lot of blessings.  But even in those earthly blessings - there lies sources for discontent.  I am blessed with a wonderful husband - but he can disappoint me.  I am blessed with 2 beautiful daughters - but they can frustrate me and bring out my flaws in the best possible way.  I am blessed with a nice home to raise my family in - but I always see things that need fixing or updating.  The list can go on, and for every blessing - I can follow it up with a BUT.  I can do that because these things are material - they are fleeting.  Yes, they are gifts from God, but they are still of this world.

As I sat thinking through that, I thought about the statement that we are blessed beyond measure.  When I use that statement, I'm usually talking about my worldly possessions and blessings.  And while that is true, you can see that those blessings can be sources of discontent.  So the Lord brought this statement to mind:

I AM BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE BY MY SALVATION ALONE.

My goodness - I sat with that statement for awhile, just staring at it after I had written it down.  That is a blessing that can never be a source of discontent.  It is a blessing that is a source of comfort, peace, joy, security, etc.

So the next time that I feel the discontent creeping in - I need to think on my salvation and the gift that it is from the Lord.  That is my true gift and my true blessing.  All of these other worldly things are gifts to me too, but I cannot put my hope in them - because they will fail me at some point.