contentment.

As usual, I attended weekend mass last Sunday - ok, maybe sometimes on Saturdays :) - and like every week, I'd glance through the church bulletin real quick to see if anything interesting is coming up. But this time, something caught my eye and my eyes were fixated on the whole passage. It's under the "reflection" section and it goes like this :

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LESSONS IN CONTENTMENT

- adapted from Rick Warren -

Here are four ways to develop contentment in your life.

1. Stop comparing yourself to others. When you compare your life with someone else's, the only place it can lead to is towards discontentment. There will always be people who appear to be better off than you, but you don't know their real circumstances. This is why the Bible teaches it is unwise to compare (2 Cor 10:12) - "Of course we would not dare classify ourselves or compare ourselves with those who rate themselves so highly. How stupid they are! They make up their own standards to measure themselves by their own standards!"

2. Be grateful for who you are and what you have. Learning to be content requires that you stop and "when and then" thinking - "When I am _______, then I'll be happy." (You fill in the blank). The reason we fall into this trap is that we may actually be contented for a little while but it won't last. But, more than likely, someone else or something else will come along and drain the contentment from your life.

* This part I add in myself. Ever heard the song "Live your life" by T-I ft. Rihanna? I'm sure you have. The starting part (where T-I speaks in between the mia hee(s) and mia ha(s)) goes like this "everybody right here..what you need to do is be thankful for the life you got, you know what I'm sayin'..stop looking at what you ain't got, start being thankful for what you do got.." Not that I'm all that fond of this song..it's just that these few lines really strike me :)

3. Give yourself to others. If you begin giving yourself to others, sharing what things you do have, sharing your time and your talents, you will find yourself learning to be contented. Helping others will give you an appreciation for what you have and who you are, but more importantly, you will find yourself growing in contentment.

4. Focus on things with eternal value. The real secret to becoming contented is to focus on things that have eternal value. It may be a familiar teaching to you, but Jesus said we should store up our treasures in heaven, and not on earth. (Matthew 6:19-21) reads "Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are."

By reorganising your life around eternal priorities, you'll find yourself growing in contentment as you live according to God's design and purpose. Why not try this for a month and see for yourself? God bless :)

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This caught my attention because when I look around me, discontentment is everywhere. It's only human nature to want to be the best or at least better than most. Yes, we might continue deceiving ourselves by telling ourselves that we are happy with what we have and who we are but how long are we gonna do so? I wanna be better than him/her! My friend has this, I want it too! My friends get to do it, why can't I? People's results so good wan, why I cannot be like them? And don't come tell me that these questions do not dash through your mind. Albeit being able to brush these questions off, the fact is that we humans do think about such stuff. And yes, I would call it kiasu-ism! It exists alright! But then again, without this "kiasu" spirit, development and progress wouldn't be as rapid as it is now. There's a good and bad to everything and this is no different. There's just that fine line between good and bad "kiasu-ism" and it is entirely up to us to draw that line and toe that line we draw.

Contentment. Is it really possible??