Let's get started ladies!

Excited to begin this...


As I prepared and narrowed things done to figure out where we would begin, I have to say I was a little surprised as to where I have landed.  I have never really put it together before, but contentment is a huge issue that we, as women, deal with.  If asked what I thought would be one of the top issues for women I wouldn't have chosen the word contentment.  I would have just listed things like self-image, comparing ourselves to others, managing our schedules, busyness, gossip, potty training (the thing I loathe the most) (just had to throw that in there), wanting our children to mind (yes please!), controlling everything around us...I could go on and on...never choosing the word contentment.  But...if we think about it, we will see that contentment is at the root of a lot of things that we deal with.  Issues with contentment can be followed all the way back to the beginning...Genesis and Eve's decision to take the fruit... deceived by Satan into discontentment with perfection...she wanted more.


The book, The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shrirer, is one of the sources I am using for this study.  While we will be using God's word as the absolute authority as we find out what God has for us as women, this book has great topical content related to womanhood.  So we are going to be using it as an outline, if you will, for our weekly discussions.  There are several other books that relate the topic of womanhood as well that I will probably refer to, so at some point soon I will post a book list.  However, no book is required for this study, except The Book, the Bible.


What season of life are you in?  Is it a good season, a bad season, a season of struggle, a season of waiting, confusion, anger, hurt, doubt, trial, dealing with the unknown...?  Consider this excerpt from the Resolution book...

I'm the type of person, you see, who rushes ahead, who often just goes through the motions of any current activity on my way to the next one.  My heart and my body haven't always been good about sharing the same space.  Instead of relishing each moment, each year, each opportunity, each step on the journey, I'm constantly overeager to get to the next thing, which always looks more enticing than what's currently before me.  I'm rarely satisfied in full with my present station.  

...I hadn't really been in attendance for large portions of my life.  As a teenager, I'd impatiently rushed toward young adulthood full throttle.  As a single university student, I couldn't wait to be in a committed relationship and out of college so that life could "really begin."  Then...I enjoyed our first years of marriage, but during some of them I secretly harbored discontentment with our childlessness.  And when the kids started coming, the nights were long and the days even longer, and I prayed through each of them that bedtime would come more quickly.  I was present for all of those years of my life as a student, a wife, a mom -- a woman -- and yet there was so little I could really remember, few emotions I could recall that accompanied some of the events of life.  Why? Because I'd been there, but I hadn't really been there.  

...That's been me.  Always looking toward the next moment, the next month, the next event, rarely allowing myself the privileges of fully participating and embracing the happenings that were right before me for that day.  ...Then before you know it, you've missed out on the joys in the journey, the growth that comes from battling throught the difficulties, the sweet and savory experience of creating the memories.

In learning to find contentment we must learn to consider each moment as a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience...

...Only for the coming year would my husband be exactly like this.  Only for these fleeting moments would my children talk, look, and act exactly like this.  And if I chose to hurry through them in an attempt to avoid the parts I didn't like, I'd simultaneously miss all the things I did like about this season.

And if you are not a wife or mom yet, only for this season will your life be just like this.  Right now the friends you hang with, the job you have or don't have, if you are in college...the people you are in contact with daily in your classes, your professors...all of these things are just like this, only for this season, this moment.


God is sovereign, in control of all things...ALWAYS.  So if this is true, you are in this season of life because that is where God has placed you, and He has something for you to do (for HIS Kingdom) and something for you to learn (about HIS Nature and Character so you can know Him more).

Shirer explains that by rushing through life, we are subtly devaluing those around us and the experience we are involved in, we are not able to appreciate the importance or significance they bring to our lives at this very moment, and not grasping our responsibility for holding dear and treating well the gifts God has entrusted us with.  For example she says..

Instead of embracing the privilege of being a blessing to my husband, my children, my friends, and others, I'd been quietly communicating to them I wanted them to change and speed up, to get busy being somebody else, someone who's more in line with what I want and need, to hurry along to a place when they could make me happier than they currently do.

Ouch, I don't know about you, but that has really been a wake up call from the Holy Spirit, and has really made me examine myself.  I don't want to miss out on the "joys of the journey" or "the growth that comes from battling through the difficulties" or miss out any longer making memories so that I can reflect on what God has done.  I don't want to miss what God is asking me to do for His kingdom.  In my current season of life maybe He wants me to be a light so that those around me may be drawn to Him, maybe He is calling me to be strong in my faith so that others can see His faithfulness, maybe I need to offer forgiveness to someone so that he can begin healing me and so that others will see a picture of what Christ did for me.  I don't want to miss out on learning more about the nature and character of God, how he loves, saves, sustains,...how he equips us to handle our current circumstance, even though we often doubt we can endure it, and how He provides for our every need and works all things for good.  Oh how our faith is increased as we begin recognize how big God really is and that He can be trusted with EVERYTHING.  And that He cares about all that we are going through and will provide the enduring strength needed even for something like potty train two more children.  


Let's look at what the bible says about contentment...
Paul writes that, "I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am". Philippians 4:11 
Spend sometime reading Philippians 4, especially 4:11-13. e-sword online bible
This is a great passage to just read over and over and really begin to meditate on what God's word is saying.


Here are a few other references to look up regarding contentment (certainly not an exhaustive list)...
1 Timothy 6:6
1 Timothy 6:8
Hebrews 13:5
Phil 3:8
Matthew 6:31-34


So, again, what season are you in?  What have you been hurrying through or to get to?  What can you do differently to start living in the moment and savoring what God has for you right NOW?


Learning to be content in whatever circumstance is not to say you can never look forward to something.  There is a balance or as the Resolution book calls it a "holy equilibrium" (which I think is so clever).  We will discuss that more next time.


Would love to hear your thoughts!!