Contentment Part 4
Miracles Happen
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 9,977
Contentment Part 4
Part 4 of the series on Acceptance
Baby screams because Mama won't let him play with the nice, big, shiny butcher knife. Baby is very unhappy; he can't have what he wants, and he doesn't want that silly old rattle. Baby has yet to learn that contentment consists not in getting what he wants, but in enjoying what he has.
If we grown-ups are contented only when we're getting what we want, we're going to be discontented most of the time. That way, our happiness depends on circumstances over which we have no control. No human being is so wise and powerful that he can control circumstances.
Then we had better see what we can do about finding our own enjoyment. Since we can't get everything we want, we must learn to enjoy what we have. Well, what have you? You're alive, and you have five senses in more or less good working order. Even if you were deaf, dumb and blind, you could at least take enjoyment from the sensation of breathing.
I am not deaf, dumb and blind. I can even look at a smouldering dump and enjoy the realization that I can see it and I can smell it. I can listen to a cat yowling outside my window at three a.m. and enjoy the realization that there's nothing wrong with my hearing. I can walk; I can enjoy the sensation of picking my feet up and putting them down. I can be color-blind and tone-deaf and still enjoy a little baby's gurgling.
As a matter of fact, we can find something enjoyable in any situation, no matter how disagreeable, if we look for it. If we try hard enough, we can even enjoy the drudgery of our work.
Don't make the mistake of postponing your enjoyment until vacation time, or even till the week-end. Some people have to go to movies or night-clubs for amusement and laughs, when their own children can provide more amusement than an army of MC's. Let's enjoy the here and now!
Perhaps the most difficult thing to bear is loneliness or aloneness. What to do when circumstances force us into a solitary existence? First, if you are fortunate enough to have a variety of interests, physical or mental, you must make a real effort to develop them. Failing that, you can search out and help the less fortunate. If you are not up to that, you are thrown back on the conscious cultivation of your five senses and intellectual powers. At the very least, you can tell God every morning that you hold yourself available for use as His instrument, if only by praying Him to bless everyone whom you meet.
If these alternatives don't work, there is only one thing left; plain, simple, rockbottom acceptance. Stop pitying yourself, stop rebelling, throw in the sponge, and surrender to the obvious fact that since God allows it and you can't escape it, it must be best for you and for everyone. Pray for the faith to believe it and to accept it.
Baby screams because Mama won't let him play with the nice, big, shiny butcher knife. Baby is very unhappy; he can't have what he wants, and he doesn't want that silly old rattle. Baby has yet to learn that contentment consists not in getting what he wants, but in enjoying what he has.
If we grown-ups are contented only when we're getting what we want, we're going to be discontented most of the time. That way, our happiness depends on circumstances over which we have no control. No human being is so wise and powerful that he can control circumstances.
Then we had better see what we can do about finding our own enjoyment. Since we can't get everything we want, we must learn to enjoy what we have. Well, what have you? You're alive, and you have five senses in more or less good working order. Even if you were deaf, dumb and blind, you could at least take enjoyment from the sensation of breathing.
I am not deaf, dumb and blind. I can even look at a smouldering dump and enjoy the realization that I can see it and I can smell it. I can listen to a cat yowling outside my window at three a.m. and enjoy the realization that there's nothing wrong with my hearing. I can walk; I can enjoy the sensation of picking my feet up and putting them down. I can be color-blind and tone-deaf and still enjoy a little baby's gurgling.
As a matter of fact, we can find something enjoyable in any situation, no matter how disagreeable, if we look for it. If we try hard enough, we can even enjoy the drudgery of our work.
Don't make the mistake of postponing your enjoyment until vacation time, or even till the week-end. Some people have to go to movies or night-clubs for amusement and laughs, when their own children can provide more amusement than an army of MC's. Let's enjoy the here and now!
Perhaps the most difficult thing to bear is loneliness or aloneness. What to do when circumstances force us into a solitary existence? First, if you are fortunate enough to have a variety of interests, physical or mental, you must make a real effort to develop them. Failing that, you can search out and help the less fortunate. If you are not up to that, you are thrown back on the conscious cultivation of your five senses and intellectual powers. At the very least, you can tell God every morning that you hold yourself available for use as His instrument, if only by praying Him to bless everyone whom you meet.
If these alternatives don't work, there is only one thing left; plain, simple, rockbottom acceptance. Stop pitying yourself, stop rebelling, throw in the sponge, and surrender to the obvious fact that since God allows it and you can't escape it, it must be best for you and for everyone. Pray for the faith to believe it and to accept it.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Smithfield, VA
Posts: 521
This is a great post, thank you. We can all find great pleasure or find nothing in everything depending on what we choose to find. It's not the cards we're dealt, but how we play them. This helps me remember even when dealt the worst cards I can find a way to enjoy playing them one way or another. Thank you for this post.
Wes
Wes
Miracles Happen
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 9,977
Last part
"Lord, Save Us..."
God is infinitely wise: He knows what is best for us. He loves us with an infinite love; He wants what is best for us. He is infinitely powerful; He can achieve it for us. We, on the other hand, are ignorant, weak and wayward. Yet in weakness lies our strength. Are we licked, beat, flattened, hopeless? Fine! It is only when we admit our utter helplessness that we can be sure of God's help.
No one but a monster could pass by a starving, naked infant freezing in a snow bank without picking it up, sheltering, feeding, and clothing it. So it is with us, As long as we insist, "I can handle it!" - God says "Go ahead!" But when we appeal to Him as a helpless infant, He picks us up in His gentle hands, cradles us in His powerful arms, and our worries are over.
A very wise old Scotsman used to put it this way: "As long as I insisted on driving, I ran into trouble. After the last crackup I said to God: "O.K. You drive it." Since then I have been riding in the back seat enjoying the scenery. I place myself completely in His hands every morning and say, "Thank you, Lord!" every night. And that's it.
In praying, we must remember that "Father knows best." Suppose, for instance, I think I am about to lose my job? Should I pray? What should I pray for? God may have ordained that if I do not pray, He will let nature take its course and I will lose my job; if I do ask Him to save my job, He will. However, with greater faith I may pray, "Dear God, do what is best for all concerned." In turn, He may permit me to lose my job, only to get a better one. I have nothing to lose by leaving it up to Him. After all, He can't possibly do a worse job of running my life than I have myself.
We all are inclined to make the mistake of thinking that the few minutes we spend in actually talking to God are all that count. In reality, the attitude of mind we maintain throughout the day is every bit as important. If you place yourself in God's hands in the morning, and throughout the day you hold yourself ready to accept His will as it is made known through the circumstances of your daily life, your attitude of acceptance becomes a constant prayer.
To cultivate this attitude, to remind yourself how to live with yourself, start today to recite every day the serenity prayer.
God grant me the
SERENITY to accept the things
I cannot change;
COURAGE to change the things I can;
and
WISDOM to know the difference
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships
as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things
right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this
life and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next. Amen
You are reading from Acceptance by Vincent Collins
"Lord, Save Us..."
God is infinitely wise: He knows what is best for us. He loves us with an infinite love; He wants what is best for us. He is infinitely powerful; He can achieve it for us. We, on the other hand, are ignorant, weak and wayward. Yet in weakness lies our strength. Are we licked, beat, flattened, hopeless? Fine! It is only when we admit our utter helplessness that we can be sure of God's help.
No one but a monster could pass by a starving, naked infant freezing in a snow bank without picking it up, sheltering, feeding, and clothing it. So it is with us, As long as we insist, "I can handle it!" - God says "Go ahead!" But when we appeal to Him as a helpless infant, He picks us up in His gentle hands, cradles us in His powerful arms, and our worries are over.
A very wise old Scotsman used to put it this way: "As long as I insisted on driving, I ran into trouble. After the last crackup I said to God: "O.K. You drive it." Since then I have been riding in the back seat enjoying the scenery. I place myself completely in His hands every morning and say, "Thank you, Lord!" every night. And that's it.
In praying, we must remember that "Father knows best." Suppose, for instance, I think I am about to lose my job? Should I pray? What should I pray for? God may have ordained that if I do not pray, He will let nature take its course and I will lose my job; if I do ask Him to save my job, He will. However, with greater faith I may pray, "Dear God, do what is best for all concerned." In turn, He may permit me to lose my job, only to get a better one. I have nothing to lose by leaving it up to Him. After all, He can't possibly do a worse job of running my life than I have myself.
We all are inclined to make the mistake of thinking that the few minutes we spend in actually talking to God are all that count. In reality, the attitude of mind we maintain throughout the day is every bit as important. If you place yourself in God's hands in the morning, and throughout the day you hold yourself ready to accept His will as it is made known through the circumstances of your daily life, your attitude of acceptance becomes a constant prayer.
To cultivate this attitude, to remind yourself how to live with yourself, start today to recite every day the serenity prayer.
God grant me the
SERENITY to accept the things
I cannot change;
COURAGE to change the things I can;
and
WISDOM to know the difference
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships
as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things
right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this
life and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next. Amen
You are reading from Acceptance by Vincent Collins
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