Ever sense I can remember I have been constantly looking forward to the next stage in life. In high school, it was college. In college it was a job/career/marriage. Once married, kids. We love to travel, so I was always ready for the next adventure.
Hubs and I have been married for six years in August and we have moved 7 times (6 of those moves within 4 years). And during those four years of moving 6 times we have had 4 children.
We moved to Kansas and are staying in a cute little house. It was supposed to be temporary until we found somewhere else. So I was always looking online for a new place to move.
It's constant. And this constant change established in me a NEED to change all the time. Consequently, I never really settled in where we were located. Always looking for a new place, new location, new, new, new. And I was not content with where we were at. Ever. Creating a lack of happiness, contentment, friendships, community and a lot more stress.
While on bed rest during my pregnancy with the twins, I spent a lot of time reading blogs about others lives and seeing how happy they were. I longed for that. A cute little home I could call my own. Able to have a garden and space where I could create whatever I wanted. Paint and remodel MY house however I wanted and know that the efforts would be something I could enjoy for a long while.
Through all of this searching and longing I realized something. I don't know where we are going to end up. It seems God keeps throwing out a new plan then the one we thought we had arranged. I realized instead of waiting until we get "there" I need to be HERE. I am not in control, I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring but it is my responsibility to be happy with and enjoy what I have been given now. And when I stop and look around at this moment, where we are at now and what we have, our amazing little family and the happiness we share, all of the other wants turn into hobbies and fun adventures. Adventures we can enjoy now as a family now.
If I wait until I get "there" to start living the kind of life I have longed for, it may never happen because I don't even know where "there" is. Even if we move in a month, a year or five years, I have decided to create the life I have longed for now and create it wherever we go. Having awesome adventures everyday. Starting today. Enjoying this moment. Thriving here.
1 comment:
Learning to be content is, what I have realized, a huge part in being truly, straight-from-the-heart happy! God can't promote you to your next assignment until you are content with where you are, otherwise you're always looking for the next thing, just like you were talking about, instead of finding the goodness in what he has already given you! Just because you are content does not mean that you are comfortable, it means you are happy in spite of that!! I'm glad this is something you have discovered, I know it completely changed our lives. We are very content with where we are right now, but we are still setting goals and having dreams and knowing that God has SO much more planned for us! Glad to hear you are doing well :)
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