Thursday, July 26, 2012

How is your Contentment quotient? Negative or Positive?

 
I’ve never been a fan of the power of positive thinking; I know, this philosophy has helped a number of people but my question is “for how long?”  If I’m stuck in the mud and I think positively that I’m not stuck in the mud...reality tells me I’m still stuck in the yuk. (there is a story here but for another time).

How often are you content with what you have tatted?  Could not that join have been better?  To press or not to press. I’m told it SHOULD be tatted in such a way as to not need blocking but very few of us have that experience. Dissatisfied we either hide these pieces, cut them up; or, as a good friend does...share what we consider our meager effort, with the tatting world. We tat and retro tat.

It is hard to be content when you battle illness and your life is filled with pain 24/7.  Bitterness tries to crawl beneath your covering ~ you know, that face you wear daily for the world to see?  Why me, why now, why, why, why.  A better question is, “Why NOT me?”  The why question seems predicated upon the idea that we are in some way too good, or deserve better.  My question, Why NOT me? is predicated upon the honesty of “seeing" myself and realizing that I’m not special, I am blemished and only God can take a kitten and turn it into a Lion.  We’ve talked about that in a past devotional.


Contentment is an elusive state of mind in tatting as well as in life.  The grass is always greener. . .
It should not be so!  My favorite apostle is Paul.  Partly because he came later, partly because he was an educated man, and partly because, like me, he had to learn some of life’s lessons the hard way. He was not, as some say, a misogynist.  Some of his finest helpers were women, indeed if it had not been for Lydia (a seller of purple; she dyed threads and cloth) the epistle to the Romans would not have journeyed across the sea. And Pricilla, she was a Bible teacher who straightened out a young man’s theology. But I digress, easy to do because the Bible IS a fascinating book.

This devotional will go past my 3 paragraph limit.  “THEY” say that a reader’s attention is not held beyond 3 paragraphs ~ so will you please follow along and just indulge me?

Contentment involves Change.  The only constant IS change.  Tatters sometimes cheat and copy other people’s patterns and claim they only changed it 10% so therefore, the new pattern is their pattern.  Excuse me?  So too, all religions that we know about have all claimed to be a road to God/gods; and, it is a popular saying, “All roads lead to God”.   This is a disingenuous  proposition.  What is your idea of the Character of God?  Is your God involved in your daily life or did He/she put all in motion and then Let it Spin?  Hands off?    God, in the Bible, reveals all about who and what He is.  God is a spirit, God is love, God sees every hair on your head, God cares for the birds and the flowers; in both Old and New Testament God has revealed Himself by many adjectives.  I had a 30-day devotional that was predicated upon “God I am thankful that you are: ________” with appropriate scriptures.

The attribute for which i am thankful is:  “God is unchanging”  Even though events in my life changed, and they have greatly in this past year, our God is unchanging.  Because HE is unchanging I can be content in my present situation because Jesus gives me perfect peace.

Now, this defies logic but it is ultimately logical.  How could one trust a god who was all wlly-nilly; a god who is uninterested in my day to day struggle?  The mythical Greek gods were very small minded, indeed, as they were always fighting or angry with the ‘earthlings’.  The God of Scripture is unchanging and He cares about my ‘whatsoever state."   Here are His words to us about change and His attributes.   From Creator to Priest.

Philippians 4:ll b & vs 13  “. . . I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.”   “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (implied by context..Christ God is active in our lives)

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth” 
Hebrews 13: 8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”
Hebrews 4: 15 “For we do not have a High Priest who can not sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all ways tempted as we are, but without sin.”  (sin = disagreement with God)

These are but a handful of the hundreds of passages equating God’s interest in our daily lives, His attributes, all of which cause the believe to have a peace that passes understanding.  I can only testify to what I know to be true in my life, and based upon scripture.