Green Acres

It's great living with a family. I get the opportunity to learn so many lessons (the first and most obvious being the benefit of keeping your daughters at home). But the one that has become most relevant lately is the tension between contentment and circumstances.

I have been racing to graduation for the last year and a half now. I came to realize that I didn't like so much the lifestyle of a full-time student and wanted very much to be done with it. Yet now, as the time appproaches (less than two months!), a fear is creeping up. What if life after graduation isn't so great? What if all this time I've just been a sufferer of the "grass is greener" syndrome, and won't be a bit happier even with the different circumstances I think I want?

I was talking with the Mother Cook about this, and she says it's very possible. She reminded me of Proverbs 15:15, which says that "All the days of the afflicted are bad, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast." I must remember to rejoice in all my circumstances, and to be focused on the task at hand that God has given me. One of her favorite phrases is "Wherever you are - be there." That's a very hard concept to grasp as a 21-year-old young lady wanting to be married.

But the excitement is very real. I really don't appreciate my circumstances right now as much as other circumstances God has given. The accomplishing of this task will be a very real relief and joy. So, whereas I know that my fear of discontenment and my desire to be rid of this set of circumstances are both realities (with which I must deal both now and in the future), the Reality is that my God is sovereign and has withheld absolutely no good thing from me.

Now, if I could just remember to believe that... :)