Contentment is a Choice November 17, 2011

             The last few weeks have been really busy. The usual work, substitute teaching, a wedding, baby showers, Sunday School teaching, and attempting to fit in decent work outs have filled these soggy, dark, November days. To top it off, Thanksgiving is a week away. Naturally, I tend to reflect this time of year—on what the year has contained and how blessed I am, but it’s also a season of remembering loss. I am just about a month away from the four year anniversary of finding out about my degenerative hearing loss. With each year new insights and feelings spring up; it’s akin to losing a family member but different in many ways; I am still here, thanks be to God I have some hearing left, and I have grown in countless ways. However, in the areas of my loss, and in singleness, I continually come back to the importance of choosing contentment.

            Yes, contentment is a choice, a lesson hard learned. Praying for it is like praying for patience or humility—get ready for a rough yet worthwhile ride. Some days choosing contentment is easy—days with friends, family, sunshine, a good book, milestones with the kids at work; others are a battle—embarrassment-riddled mishearing, traffic, wallowing in loneliness (also a choice), get me sidetracked from joy as I focus on what I don’t have as opposed to what I do. This week and day has been a battle. Maybe it’s another holiday season of singleness, missing family and friendships that have changed; but ultimately it comes down to choosing contentment. Choosing to rest in Christ comes by being rooted in His word, promises, and hope. I am ridiculously blessed. Like Paul, I have all I need to be content. I want to choose contentment. Like one of my TWU professors articulated “being alone is a condition, loneliness is a choice”. I may not have a “significant other” but I do have many significant others in my life—from family to friends and the precious children I work with. So I am committed to choosing contentment. It is a choice that is not rooted in my circumstances, but in Christ.