Keeper At Home Temptations, Part 5

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KAH TEMPATIONS, PART 5:  A DISCONTENT HEART

     Oh, the bliss of being a wife.  We get to be a keeper at home.  We get to manage a home.  We get to train children.  We get to love our special, ‘til-death-do-us-part, man.  Oh, what bliss!

     Oh, what stress!  No matter how much counsel a girl receives prior to the wedding day, we tend to politely ignore the warnings or preparatory counsel regarding the difficult times.  We are living with rose-colored glasses, due to being head-long into puppy love and/or lust.

     Reality hits, and hits at different times for all of us.  The rose-colored glasses are shattered.  We realize that puppy love turns quickly into tough-love. 

     Managing a home becomes a chore.  Loving our special man becomes drudgery.  Training children becomes an unanswered prayer, or a desire fulfilled that we regret.  The whimsical fancies of being a keeper at home become a reality that is not revealed in the romance novels, but one that is heavily scorned and shunned in the world—even amongst Christian circles. 

     Our hearts bring us low.  We start wistfully wishing for a nine-to-five job.  We daydream of the past, or of a “what-if” past/future/now.  We feel cramped in our home; whether it be an apartment, townhouse, hut, or house.  Our children seem to us as nothing more than a duty, a chore, a burden.  Our husbands…Yuck.

     Yes, our hearts speak to us the reality.  We think, and live, according to what is in our hearts.  It is just the way things go.

     It is easy to bemoan our lot in life as a keeper at home.  It is a station belittled in the word, in many churches, and by our discontent hearts.  It is easy to covet what is not ours, and despair of what we do have, or don’t have. 

     Yet, God hates murmuring.  He hates covetousness.  He hates sin.  And sisters, we are sinning if we’re off in la-la-land, wishing for other things/people.  We are sinning when we are no longer satisfied for what provisions and lot He has bestowed upon us, but rather ungrateful brats whining for something/someone else.

     Yes, our husbands are sinners.  Yes, so are children.  Yes, so are we.  Yes, the sinks are leaking.  Yes, the cars’ “check engine” light is on, again, and are husbands have yet to fix it.  Yes, the carpet if full of a science lab that if evolution were true, would very well possibly link us to our primordial-soup beginnings.  Yes, as soon as we dust, it collects on the surface again.  Yes, the home is way too small for our growing family.  Yes, yes, yes, these all are true and more.

    

     HOWEVER, we have:

1. A husband
2. Children (or one day!)
3. Life
4. A home in Heaven (if born-again), and a home on earth
5. Warmth
6. Food
7. Love
8. Things in which to fill our home
9. Friends
10. Family
11. Salvation
12. ________________ (Fill-in-the-blank)

     What if God took away everything we complained about?  What if we only received daily what we thanked God for the prior evening?  What if we had it all taken away in the blink of an eye, just as Job?  Would we covet then?  Would we bemoan our husbands, our children, our homes?  Or, would we weep in sorrow over the losses of such precious, irredeemable gifts?  Would we remember to be thankful, and to be content with such things as we have?

     I am speaking to the choir.  I all too often neglect gratitude.  Or, I am only grateful when I get my way.  Sometimes, I don’t even give God the thanks He is due.

     I read a good quote on Twitter today.  It said:  “Do you thank God only when you get your way, or simply because He is?”  I thanked Him today for simply Him, as well as remembering all the good things He has done in my life.

     This post is not intended to revive us to have the “Thanksgiving spirit.”  Rather, I hope to edify all my sisters in Christ, and myself, unto a spirit of giving of thanks—ALWAYS.  I am always being reminded of the fact that I never have a time in my life wherein He cannot receive praise from me.  I only choose to do so, or not do so.

SOME WAYS TO AVOID HAVING A DISCONTENT HEART

1. Pray to the Lord to help!  “Truly my soul waiteth upon God:  from him cometh my salvation.  He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.”—Psalm 62:1, 2
2. Read the Bible, for it is within the pages of that precious book wherein we will find our strength!  “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.  Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.  They also do no iniquity:  they walk in his ways.”—Psalm 119:1-3  “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”—Matthew 4:4
3. Talk to your husband.  Let him pray with you, and for you.  Remember, God tells us that we are “…Heirs together of the grace of life…”—1 Peter 3:7
4. Take a sheet of paper, and write down all the people in your life.  Write down how God has used them in your life.  Write down all the things in your home, or in your possession.  Write down the ways you use them.  Write down all the experiences in your life that you can remember.  Write down how God has used them in your life.  Before too long, you’ll start seeing how abundantly blessed you are in your life, and be able to thank Him for all His goodness in it.  Every day, remember to thank God for those things you’ve been given by Him, and for His praise!  “Stand in awe, and sin not:  commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.  Selah.  Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.  There be many that say, Who will shew us any good?  LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.  Thou hast put gladness in my heart…”—Psalm 4:4-7a