Contentment? No, it's selfishness.

I just got finished reading a devotion for today and the topic was about being content financially. This particular devotion talked about how during these hard economic times many families are having to make sacrifices, and as a result we can and should take it as an opportunity to be content with what we do have.

I think the thing that struck me the most though was the nature of the sacrifices that we as an American people are having to make these days.

Not going out to eat anymore
Not going on a vacation this year
Not going shopping for new clothes
Not getting our nails and hair done every 2 weeks
Not buying that new car just yet

And the list goes on and on...



Wow, we are a spoiled people. And it is sad to think that we have to learn contentment when such trivial things as listed above are taken away from us...

I mean, yes any opportunity in which we can learn something that is good and challenging from the Lord is awesome...but perhaps at times when we think he's trying to teach us one thing, he desires us to learn something much greater, to gain a deeper perspective.

From this devotion, I learned not only do I need to learn to be content, but I also need to work on my selfishness as an individual. How dare I complain that I can't eat out when there are children and families across the world starving to death. How dare I complain that I can't go shopping for new clothes, when there are people who have to wear the same thing every day because they have nothing else to wear.


Forgive me Lord for my selfish, self-centered way of thinking. Teach me to be content in all circumstances...but even more remind me that the "sacrificing" I may have to do is absolutely trivial and selfish in light of the many desperate unfulfilled needs that others face in this broken world.