Love Life Again - Finding Joy When Life Is HardSample

Embrace Contentment

There came a time I had to accept that my life had not turned out the way I thought it would and no amount of wishing it were different was going to change it.

Perhaps you can relate. Maybe you had a dream crushed after years of pursuing it. Perhaps you stayed at a job for thirty years building your retirement fund, only to have that company go bankrupt and take your life savings down with it. Perhaps you’ve experienced the heartbreak of infertility when you planned on having a house full of children. Maybe you had a loved one die far too soon. Maybe you were struck with a disease that limits your abilities and independence. Maybe you thought you’d be married by now but are still single, or maybe you invested years in a marriage that ended in divorce.

Friend, loving life is a choice, and we all have the power to choose to love our lives. Our own happiness is up to us. No person or circumstance has the power to take away our happiness or love for life without our permission. No matter what situation you find yourself in today, happiness is within your reach too. 

It’s challenging. 

It’s challenging to be content in today’s world. In fact, contentment seems to have become a lost art.

It’s tempting to company our lives with others’ or think “If only…” but these thoughts open the door for discontentment, allowing it to sink into our hearts and minds and choke our joy. Discontentment sabotages our happiness.

Hebrews 13:5 says, “Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have.” (The Message) This verse instructs us not to look for happiness in money or material things. We are to be satisfied with the present and with what we have been given. To be content with where God has us in the present moment. Period.

Here’s the thing: life is precious; our days are numbered. When we keep this in mind, it can motivate us to fight the enemy and live every day to the fullest.

Loving life is a choice, not a by-product of everything going our way. The choice to love life is ours, and our peace, joy, contentment, fulfillment, and overall happiness depend on the choice we make.