Stop and Consider
December 28th, 2009 | 
Author: This is the quietest week of the year. At least it always is for me. The presents have been opened. The family gatherings have come and maybe gone. The new year is just around the corner. This is my time to reflect. This is my time to breathe.
2009 has been a hard year for many of us. The chances are good that if you’re a military wife reading this, you spent at least a little time with your husband away, whether it was for training, a school, or a full-blown deployment. You kept the ship sailing, the troops marching, and everything else from breaking down. You did it and you may be continuing to do it even as I write this but it hasn’t happened without its challenges. Nothing ever does.
If life as you personally knew it wasn’t that bad, you probably know of family members and friends who struggled, perhaps over poor health or loss of a job. Loss of money. Loss of a marriage. Loss of hope.
We’ve watched a lot of loss play out on our televisions and in the newspapers and newscasts warily viewed. The wars continue and more families were forced to say goodbye to their heroes. Our nation’s economic security has teetered and more retirees were forced to go back to work, saying goodbye to years of savings and 401Ks that dried up like a desert stream. We’ve seen “celebrity” marriages, from Hollywood to D.C., result in messy and tragic divorces with their personal and painful details spilled for all to hear. When someone else loses, we may count our blessings but we can also be reminded of our frailties; nothing in life is ever guaranteed, at least not from the world, anyway.
Ecclesiastes 7:14 reads: “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.”
This is a powerful truth for us to think about. Contentment is an emotion that often escapes us. After all, what are people generally doing this time of year? Thinking about the New Year, and making resolutions, right? Resolving that in 2010, they’re going to lose weight, stop smoking, eat healthy, drink more water, read more books, go to church more often, start a hobby, start a business, or start their lives all over again.
We find ourselves in the winter of discontent, where the warmth of the sun hides from our face and we strive to do anything that can make us feel. More strength. More happiness. More hope. We want next year to be better than the last, and we make plans to see that it happens.
But what happens when those plans don’t work out?
What happened to all of the good dreams we had at the end of 2008 for 2009? Do we just call this year a wash and move on? Or do we recognize that even “when times are bad…” God has still been there?
Where has God been during your hardest moments? If you really stop and think about it, I know that you will see that He was right there with you. This week I want to encourage you to stop and consider. Think about what causes your discontentment. How can we prepare for 2010 not with a list of resolutions but a resolve to be content? This doesn’t mean I’m saying don’t set any goals and just be lazy this new year. What I am talking about is how can you be at peace with where God has you and where He wants to take you?
Stop and consider, and comment below: What’s the greatest thing you struggle with when it comes to being truly content?
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