The Shadow Of My Porch Swing - The Presence Of God - Part 2Sample

GROWING CONTENTMENT

This past weekend, my neighbor called and said he had a few stacks of extra wood that he wanted to give me. Being a veritable wood hoarder, I rushed right over. When I saw the stack of landscape timbers, I couldn’t help the happy dance that escaped. I knew exactly where they were going. Transferring the timbers to their new home in my front yard, I immediately began cutting, nailing and lengthening my beloved raised garden bed. It is rustic but wonderful! Thrilled, I walked inside and scratched ‘garden add-on’ off my prayer want list. Thank you, Lord, for this blessing.

Last night, God’s blessing still very fresh on my mind, my family curled up together to watch Fixer Upper. Now there are few things I enjoy more than ice cream, but gardening and the Gaines family are close rivals. (I hear your sigh) The television screen filled with a plan for a garden. Not just any garden but the most elaborate, beautiful, exquisite garden complete with chickens and picnic table and garden house. It was breathtaking and I soaked in every minute before heading to bed.

As I’m here in the kitchen this morning making waffles for my crew, the white index card clipped to the fridge door catches my attention. Each week we post our chores and a character trait on that card. This week it is contentment: being satisfied because God is working everything together for my good and His glory. A scene from last night flashes thru my mind and I’m acutely aware of how sneaky the enemy is, able to use a simple show to steal my joy and excitement over God’s evident blessings. The enemy sows such a small seed of discontent into the mix that often I don’t realize that it even got planted.

Of course, it’s not magazine worthy but my garden is a gift. It feeds my family and provides lots of one-on-one dirt-bonding time with my boys. Each moment I spend tending plants, I can’t help but think of the tender way God tends to me. Picking out weeds, pruning off diseased areas and fertilizing places that are blooming. 

As I return to waffles, I recognize the weed and pull it out while contentment settles in my soul. It is possible to truly enjoy others’ blessings while embracing my own, though they may look very different. In a few weeks Spring will come and the memory of that show will fade away, replaced with a new episode or two of some great renovation, but my garden will remain. The sun will come out and I’ll put twice as many seeds in the ground thanks to that scrap pile of wood. God is good and He gets the glory...all because I planted contentment.

Have you ever experienced the fruit of discontentment? Is it worth letting that seed grow? Where do you want to plant contentment in your life today?

Father, you have given me more than I could ever need, yet often my flesh wants more. Help me see where I have seeds (or trees) of discontentment growing in my life. I can’t weed out my heart all on my own. Show me how to pull up these sinful attitudes and plant an attitude of contentment in my life instead.

If you enjoyed this plan, check out Part 3 here . Visit www.familyunite.org for more info and a printed version of these devotionals.