Heb 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.”
This must be one of the toughest things in life to achieve. If you look at the opposite, however, try to make a list of things you are dissatisfied with. Once you’ve done that, try to find your emotions concerning these situations. I bet you will find envy, resentment, anger and pride.
I believe all our emotions can be divided into 3 categories, namely, FEAR, HURT or JOY (Instant Gratification). These are your primary or root emotions. If you had to categorize your emotions of dissatisfaction (secondary emotions), now into primary emotions you will agree with me, none of them fall in the category of Joy. They can either be Hurt because you have been given such an unfair deal, or Fear that your situation will never change. This sounds like a pity party to me. I bet by now you already feel guilty for even feeling this way about your life. Just to rub it in some more; do you think these feelings will help to change your circumstances? The only reason someone will change it for you is because they feel sorry for you. Is this what you want from life?
The funny thing as well, if you ponder on these thoughts, you get more misrable by the minute.
Now, let’s do another exercise. Think of someone in a worst situation than yourself in each of the areas you have listed before. Similarly, try to analyse the emotions you experience while comparing your situation with the other person’s. Yes, it is mostly thankfulness, relief which transpose to the root feeling of Joy. Do you still feel so hopeless? Do you still feel so
misrable?
I am sure you can see where I am heading. Yes, you are in charge of your feelings. Depending on the things you ponder on, your feelings can change between Fear, Hurt or joy.
Let us now try to analise the feelings people around us have when we are dissatisfied or satisfied.
I think the easiest way to get to those feelings is to imagine you are the mother of a little girl. It is her birthday and you are planning a party for her. She finds fault with everything you do. The presents her friends brought her are not good enough. She fights with her friends. I’ll bet the only feeling you have is to smack her. If she, however, shows real appreciation for what you have done, thanked her friends for the beautiful gifts and made sure they enjoyed the party, you’d feel proud to be her mother. If she asks you if she can help, it makes you want to do more for her. The less demanding she is, the more you want to bless her.
If you are now the mother of two children, the one always satisfied and the other always dissatisfied, won’t you have a tough time to treat them the same? However, the more you bless the satisfied one, the more dissatisfied the other one becomes.
It seems the more satisfied you become, the more you put yourself in a position to receive blessings and the more dissatisfied you become, the more people around you have negative feelings about you and if they are placed in authority over you, like your parents, teachers, boss etc, they feel like punishing you by removing your blessings, or by withholding those blessings until you become a nicer person.
Over-ambition can also be interpreted as dissatisfaction. Keep a balance. If you are ambitious beyond your calling or abilities, it can stress you out. It is therefore important to find your niche in life, do your best at that, and be satisfied in it. Don’t be in competition with anyone else – just be the best you that you can be.