Another Look At Contentment

One thing you will find if you read my blog for long is that I tend to hop all over the place when it comes to topics.  I know very well that earlier this week I started talking about The Army and the new mission which was placed before me.  I also promised to return to talk more about it.  And I will.  Just not today.  I also resolve to use tags more efficiently on my blog so you can more easily find posts which revolve around a set theme.

Today's post is more about themes, more specifically my themes, or the ones I feel that God has given me for the year.  The few readers that I have kept through the sporadic posting on my blog may remember that I had the theme of Contentment last year.  And I wrestled with that theme, A LOT.  It was not a fun thing to wrestle with when I wanted to go in other directions and do other things.   It was also not fun for me because I was disappointed in the direction the previous theme of Anticipation took.  To be quite honest I never quite came to terms with Contentment during the year.

This year is the year of Listening.  Suffice it to say that I am much more *snicker* content with this theme.  I can listen any where, doing anything, right?  Okay so I listen better when I am not doing anything else.  But sometimes God has to get me wherever He can.  And today He had me listening to him while I was switching out laundry.  A task that with a family of six, is done every day, and many days, several times a day.  I was thinking about how my laundry routine has differed and evolved over the years and how much better and more efficient I do the task, and how I could do it even better and more efficiently in the future.  And suddenly God planted a story in my heart and mind.

The story is a parable that Jesus told of the master who left town for a while and put three different servants in charge of different amounts of money (Matthew 25:14-30 NIV)  When the Master returns he finds that the first two servants have put his money to good used and doubled it, while the third servant was lazy and did not even put it in the bank, where even in today's economy it would make some intrest, but hid it in the ground where it could do nothing. The Master was pleased with the first two servants and responded to each the same way "Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things......." (vs 21 &23).

How many times have you and I heard that story preached and taught?. Many times it has been used to teach stewardship of our money.  Don't waste it, put it to good use,  use it to honor God's kingdom etc.  I am paraphrasing here but you get the idea.  In the same vein, it has also been use to teach about the gifts and talents which God has given us, with the same themes of not wasting and using them for good etc.  Both are very valid lessons to be drawn from this story.  I am not negating them AT ALL.  Here me on this:  These both are very good lessons for you or me or anybody.

But God used the same story to impress upon me yet a different lesson.  What about the lessons He is teaching us?  Those things He wants us to listen to and embody, to make a part of our being.  To me He was saying, "What about Contentment, Maria?  Have you been faithful in that area right here where you are?  How can I trust you with the bigger things that you want, and I want for you?  What about Contentment?"

As I sit and type those words and think through them once again,  I am reminded of my other themes: Articulate, Prepare, Anticipate  have I learned the lessons I need to there as well?  Looks like I have a lot of listening to do this year?

Speak Lord, for I am listening.........