Christmas contentment

With the shopping of the Christmas season in full swing, this morning’s devotion seemed to jump out at me, I Timothy 6:6, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” It seems that every year I find myself in the midst of asking my children and my wife and even myself, ‘what do you want for Christmas?’ Now, while I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong in wanting to buy things for people you love, sometimes that question seems to awaken an incredible desire for ‘things.’ I want some new clothes, I want a new BBQ smoker grill, I want a new large screen TV, or I want a cooler faster more powerful computer and so on. I do know that God is a father and He likes to give His children things and He is happy when we are enjoying the things He provides for us. My challenge, though, is how to keep that balance between being happy with everything that God has given to me and yet still wanting to get some new things. I believe this verse holds the key. Contentment means to be emotionally satisfied with the things we have. Yet the word comes from the Latin word ‘continere’ which means ‘restrained.’ It means to be content, a person still has desires but those desires are kept in restraint. They don’t consume our thoughts, nor can those desires steal our current state of being emotionally satisfied. Being truly content, I believe, can only happen when a person has experienced the powerful presence of God’s Holy Spirit in their lives. Until that happens, a person will be driven to find that something that is missing in their lives and will never know contentment. But once a person has opened their hearts to God, we need to learn how to keep our desires in check. May God give us the strength, wisdom and ability to be content with what we have, and to be able to keep our desires for new things in check.