Happy New Year to you all! I love the fact that God loves new beginnings; otherwise, why would He give us creatures so many opportunities to start fresh? New mornings, new months, new seasons, new years. He is good.
And what would a New Year be without some resolutions to go with it? I have one resolution to recommend for 2012, and that is to find contentment. Contentment doesn’t change our circumstances, but it does change our hearts, which makes all our circumstances more comfortable. Our contentment does not lie in our circumstances, for if it did, we would only be able to be content when everything is going exactly as we like, which isn’t very often. Contentment is found in Christ, who will never leave us or forsake us. Contentment is found in submitting to God’s purposes and plans in our lives, even (or especially) when we don’t understand. Contentment is a way of exercising our faith.
So here are ten ways to apply contentment in 2012.
1. Be content with your story. That means your birth and upbringing, your parents and your siblings, even your ancestors. Own your people and be content that God has written all of them into your story. Don’t just be content with your story; love your story.
2. Be content with your condition. Are you married? Are you unmarried? Divorced? Widowed? Are you pregnant? Are you not pregnant? If there is sin involved, confess it. If you already have, don’t keep on confessing the same sins. Don’t waste time on regret because it is both unfruitful and fleshly. Count your blessings and find contentment.
3. Be content with where you live: the weather, the geography, the view, the funny accents, the customs, and the history.
4. Be content with your income.
5. Be content with your health issues, even as you try to overcome them.
6. Be content with your home, how big it is or isn’t, how far it is from town or how close it is to the street.
7. Be content with your job assignment. What has God called you to do? What gifts do you have? Be content to use them to please Him.
8. Be content with your time. We all have the same allotment of twenty-four hours per day. Be content with what you can get done in them.
9. Be content with your age. A contented forty-five or sixty-five is much prettier than a discontented twenty-five.
10. Be content with your husband and your children. Don’t wish for different.
And have a very Happy New Year!
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So good. Thank you.
Somebody remind me of 3a when I’m living in Moscow and it’s still snowing in May and winter starts again somewhere around mid-July. 😉
Great words. Thank you and happy new year to you and yours!
Valerie, I’ll remind of you of 3 if you remind me of 5. All the time. At least all the time right now, lol.
Thanks for posting this! I am becoming increasingly suspicious that Femina has recording devices in my home and then posts are made accordingly. 🙂 I had just picked up “The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment” again today cause I need it. Thanks!
This is perfect- thanks for the application of a principle we are probably all striving to put into practice! (We live very close to a busy road, and I am very much 8 months pregnant…)
Amen! I believe this will be my Word for the Year. Thank you for this wonderful piece on New Years Day (on this side of the world 🙂 Blessed 2012 to you!
Hannah, I would like to recommend a book on contentment that I have enjoyed by NAVPRESS. “Calm My Anxious Heart” by Linda Dillow. Some of the chapter titles are My Journey to Contentment, Content with Circumstances, Content to be me, Content with my Role, Content in Relationships, Never Enough, A Faulty Focus, Worry is like a Rocking Chair, Faith, The Foundation, etc. It is a 12 week bible study. You could do it with a couple of friend. I have been using it as a devotional but would like to do it again with a few friends as a bible study. It is filled with encouragement. Julie recommended it to me.
Loved your family Christmas card. I didn’t get one out this year.
I enjoy reading your blog and Facebook entries. Wishing you a New Year filled with contentment and many blessings from our Lord! Love, Aunt Lynn
Amen! What an encouraging word! Thank you, Nancy, and blessings to you.
Yes! Godliness with contentment is great gain.
Thy words were found and I ate them. I so pray to digest this and be nourished and beautified (67) by its truth.
Happy New Year
YES! Even last night the tempter was trying his wiles on a few of these issues saying “if this were different, if this were different, or if this were different, your life would be just right” UM LIE ALERT! Yes. May Christ be our portion and our heart’s delight! No idols!!
So helpful! I love this very much and will do my best to take it to heart! Contentment, here I come!
What a wonderful encouragement to start the year – thank you so much, Nancy.
Happy New Year to You all; thank you for your ministry, it is, indeed, a great blessing.
Thanks for these words today. Pretty much exactly what I was praying this morning, only said in a much better way.
I ran across the link to this post on the FB wall of a friend. I preach Contentment all the time. This post is AMAZING! Thank you so much. I became so excited about your post that I worked up my own and pointed my readers back over here with several links to your post. Thank you so much for this post!
http://clotheslinemusings.blogspot.com/2012/01/content-new-year-in-2012.html
Beautiful. Thank you. I know I’ll need this sometime soon, as the struggle for contentment ebbs and flows through my life.
Nancy, I wonder if you wrote this especially for me? Thank you so much, I needed these exact words!
And the encouragement is that, as I was reminded tonight at our Lord’s Supper celebration, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” So, by God’s grace, we can pursue contentment,just as did Paul! So thankful for the Holy Spirit!
A good word in season. A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. “Putting on” cheer not only makes the way easier, but you feel better too. We can’t always change our situation but we can change our disposition.
May God bless this New Year. Thank you for your sincere words.
Everything sifted through His fingers…
That changes everything.
Makes contentment possible even in the midst of pain–
If I believe He is for my good and for His glory.
thank you for reminding us about contentment. i needed this reminder while living in china, with 3-yo old twins, learning language, keeping house, and trying to stay warm.
thanks for your ministry. 🙂
How do you differentiate between contentment and complacency? When is it appropriate to be content, but when is it appropriate to try to better yourself and your situation? I agree contentment is important, but I’m afraid that it could be misconstrued as forcing yourself to stay static instead instead of constantly seeking what’s could be better. It’s like being content with eating the same thing off the menu every time instead of trying something new. Thoughts?
Amen! and Happy New Year, Nancy!
Thank you for this perfect New Year’s post. It was wonderful seeing
your entire family this past week. Always a treat!
oh thanks Nancy! I was going over my journal from the last years…used to be a journal a year! I was so saddened by my grumbling and discontent. Some of the old testament stories reminded me of my demands on God, not direct, but by heart attitude. I worked so hard to not say things out loud a few years back, but realized by God’s gentleness and pressing in on all sides with trials, that i have not stopped the quiet, unspoken murmur of discontent.
I would agree with Bean! The whole thing about distance from town….did you hear me yell that across the mountain???
Love you and your commitment to putting on Christ!
Thank you for your post- I definitely needed to read that! A friend on FB recommended your post.
Blessings to you, Shawn
What a nice list of things to begin a new year with — very encouraging 🙂
A friend liked this on FB so I followed the link. I’ve been very encouraged with what I’ve read. Thank you for taking time to share.
What a great list – thanks!
Thank you, Nancy. Lovely.
Beautifully said! Thank you so much!
Thank you so much! I think I’ll print this one off and keep it close.
Happy New Year to all your family, Nancy! Many, many blessings to all of you.
We thank our God upon every remembrance of you – each one.
Love,
Kelly
This is great! Thank you for the encouragement, Mrs. Wilson!
Thank you for the encouraging words. The biggest content is the sins that is inside ourselves, our thoughts and the harsh words we sometimes utter. May God bless all the readers in 2012. Annatjie
good stuff thanks!
Nancy, can you write more about repentance without regret? For years I’ve had 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NASB) stuck to my monitor with the phrase “repentance without regret” in big, underlined letters, but I haven’t quite gotten the hang of letting go of regret. And that probably means I could be doing better at the repentance part of the equation, too. Thanks!
Amen and Amen!
Great reminder, as being content is one of my biggest struggles.
Hi Nancy,
I just wanted to thank you for writing this blog post. I printed out this post and put it on my refrigerator for all of 2012 (and it’s still there 🙂 ). And I am so thankful that I had this to read and to prepare my heart for the plans that God had for my husband and me in 2012. We got pregnant with our first child in February, but found out at the 17 week ultrasound that she had a fatal birth defect. Nora lived for 15 more weeks inside of me before I went into preterm labor and had her on September 26. She then lived for 25 more hours before she went to be with her Savior. It was so good to have your blog article on my refrigerator so that I could often be reminded (I basically constantly needed to be reminded) to be content in all of God’s plans for my life.
Thank you again and keep up the excellent writing!