Weekend Words

 From Amish Peace...

Chasing the Wind

"Better to have little, with fear for the Lord, than to have great treasure and inner turmoil." - Proverbs 15:16

One of the hardest things about living a busy, modern life is that family members tend to run in their own directions.  Parents often have jobs away from home, and younger children spend their days in day care or school.  The afternoons of older children are filled with sports practices or other activities, and the evenings and weekends can be filled with sports events or other forms of recreation.  Believe it or not, the possibility of the same thing happening in their community is one reason most Amish reject machinery and choose to stay away from modern vehicles as much as they can.

Amish take a critical look at the pros and cons before they are willing to accept a new invention.  They consider the effect something new will have on their family, whether it will encourage family members to work together or cause them to drift apart, and whether the cost will force them to take jobs away from the family to pay for it.

Considering this reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Ecclesiastes 4:6: "Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind."  It makes me think about my own life and about what I often embrace without question: Will this draw my family closer or move them apart?  Will it cause me to work longer hours to pay for it?  Am I trying to fill my hands and, in effect, chasing the wind?

It's easy to think of the Amish as odd for not wanting to make their lives easier, but maybe we need to consider what's truly easier - living a hurried life or working hard with your family by your side?

Heavenly Father, my heart feels heavy when I think of all I've added to make my life easier, when the truth is, those things have become a heavy burden on me.  Give me discernment about what my family really needs.  I open my hands to You and ask You to strip away what is not necessary, what is harmful to the contentment of my soul.  Amen.

From Be Still and Know...

"For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (Philippians 4:11)

Contentment is defined as "satisfaction; the state of being happy with what one has or is."  It has been described as "that which calms you down."

Have you ever said, "If I could have that dress (car, home, or business position), I could be content"?  Yet after you obtained it, you were not satisfied.  You wanted something else.  You discovered that acquiring possessions does not bring contentment.  Someone has said, "A person's life is a constant struggle to lift his earning power up to his yearning power."

People today are searching for that which will bring contentment.  But because they seek in the wrong places for the wrong things, it eludes them.

Paul learned that there is contentment and it was not dependent on his outward condition, for he was in prison when he wrote Philippians.  Translators inserted "therewith" in this verse, emphasizing that Paul was content with his circumstances.  When we omit the word, "therewith", we discover that the emphasis is not on Paul being content WITH His circumstances, but being content IN them.

He learned that real contentment was in Jesus Christ, His sufficiency and satisfaction.  "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness" (Psalm 107:9).

Contentment is the inner satisfaction that enables us to live in quietness, peace, and acceptance.  "Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am" (Philippians 4:11 Amplified).

Have you learned to be content?  Possession of material things, social position, fame, talent will not give you permanent contentment.  But you can be contented daily regardless of where you are, what you are, what you have or what you do not have.  Real contentment for you can be had through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote, "[And it is, indeed, a source of immense profit, for] godliness accompanied with contentment - that contentment which is a sense of inward sufficiency - is great and abundant gain" (1 Timothy 6:6, Amplified).