Sunday Thought 74

I have not learned contentment. First I wanted snow (to play in with my children). Now I want the snow to go away! I want spring-but when Spring comes I will probably complain about the mud. So I will want it to be summer, and of course I will then probably complain about the heat. Then I will want it to be Fall, but will complain about raking up the leaves. So then I will want it to be winter and the cycle will continue. Contentment is a hard virtue to learn.

I am so much like the children of Israel in the book of Exodus. They were in bondage and slavery and wanted out. When they were delivered by God through Moses, they then complained about the food:

The sons of Israel said to them (Moses and Aaron), ‘”Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

The people remembered the food, but forgot the pain and suffering of being enslaved by the Egyptians. Even when they were provided abundant bread, they then asked for meat! They were never satisfied.

Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying “Contentment makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.” * May we all learn to be rich through contentment.

* Quote found through worldofquotes.com.