MONDAY MUSINGS!

CULTIVATE CONTENTMENT TODAY to ENDURE CRISIS TOMORROW!

Avinash ABC (Philippians 4:13) 

FORGIVENESS = CONTENTMENT!

Father forgive my "whine" within. Even when I don't voice it, I know it's there. May it not be!

Today is "Thankful Thursday," a great time to "trash the whine" and give thanks.....in everything! (I Thessalonians 5:18)

May my life manifest the Spirit of God within. 

Contentment ..........Christ in me the hope of glory is seen as I live in the light of His forgiveness!

Thank God I'm Forgiven!.....................

                    not just on Thursday, but everyday!

ADDITIONAL ALLITERATIVE AFTERTHOUGHTS

 FROM 

TO 

= not woe is me.......

                    .....but WOW IS HE!

Do you wallow in your own woe of "poor me" pity......

            or bask in the WOW of His goodness and grace! 

Woe or WOW----it's an alliterative choice!

GREEDFLATION

Greedflation. Another new word for me. For corporations it can be jacking up prices for impure gain. (New York Times 6/2022) Do they raise prices and then advertise a sale?

For hoarding consumers it can be emptying store shelves, while the getting is good, for their own gains.

Interestingly enough, today is "Prime Time"----Amazon's big, if not BIGGEST, shopping day. Hopefully a day to be frugal not just one of accumulation. Even the frugal might consider sharing their savings with others.

Greed. Certainly not a new concept. Think Me First. Self-centered  All about me.

In our culture it can start around age two. " He won't share" for a toddler means, means "he" has it and I want it. Though the scenario might change the concept is often present, in full measure, during the career years. 

This year golfers are all a "twitter" over the defection from the US tour of some of its members to join the Saudi Arabia LIV tour. Why? 

Three Guesses.....1) $    2) $$   3) $$$   Which has one ask. How much is enough?

Sadly, the answer often remains the same.....always a little more. 

What does God say about greed? It certainly does not define greed as contentment.

Be not eager for money, but eager to serve. (1 Timothy 6:10)

..do not forget to do good and share with others....(Hebrews 13:16)

I say the opposite of greed is selfless.

"Whoever is greedy for unjust gain brings trouble to his family...." Proverbs 15"27a) 

"Keep your life free from the love of money." (Hebrews 13:5)

Don't let "Greedflation" define you as a part of your conversations.

More later.................I would have put I'm going shopping but folks who know me, know I am NOT a shopper! Nothing wrong with shopping, it's just not in my wheelhouse.

Summertime Contentment

Question---Where does one find contentment in the "dog days" of summer in The South? Those July days of seemingly inexhaustible heat and high humidity.

Answer----at the kitchen table, of course.

Nothing says summer like homegrown or local produce. Just going to the Farmer's Market can calm one's spirit. Kentucky pole beans. Shelly beans. Mounds of squash. Cartons of okra. Baskets of tomatoes---Bradley, Cherokee purple, Ripley. Ziplocs of shelled purple hulls, butter beans (aka baby limas) and cream peas---the lady peas aren't "in" yet.
Then, hurrying home to "prep" and cook for friends, neighbors and loved ones adds to the excitement.

Bread and butter corn. White Corn. Silver Queen. 
Milking that corn from the cob, a labor of love-----a season all its own---- mixed for me with sentimentality and salivation. A touch of sentimentality as I lightly cut the tips and milk the corn just as Mama Davenport taught me 60+years ago. (Note--best done outside & with an apron or old shirt because "milking corn" is a splattering endeavor.)

Nothing better than fried corn for this gal, who can salivate/drool just smelling it cook. 

Whether it's peach juice dripping down your chin----the smell of cornbread baking in a black-iron skillet in the oven*---or peas, with strange names like pinkeyes, shirt and britches, zippers, and whippoorwills, simmering on the back burner, there's solace found when "sharing" summer's bounty. All served, of course, with sliced "homegrown" tomatoes and a BIG glass of "sweet tea" with lots of ice.
King David might not have had sweet tea, but he and his people were recipients of the bounty of others, as their hunger and thirst was refreshed by others.

They also brought wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils,...

The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness. 

(1 Samuel 17: 28-29)

Gratitude for the local harvest. Sounds, smells, tastes of freshness. Supping with others.

Summertime Contentment at its best.

*2nd serving---"poor man's cornbread"---another Mama Davenport "recipe" for frying a mixture of cornmeal (Sunflower SR from Hoptown is the best) and HOT water. Mixture is about the consistency of pancake batter and Mama always fried them in bacon grease, which she kept in a "grease" labeled aluminum container of the back of her stove top.

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTENT

10/5/13 I know the idiom uses familiarity breeds "contempt." A way of stating that less is more---with people, or even as one experiences something a lot. But....I like my word choice better.

After months of fun, with almost non-stop travel activities, it's good to be home.......

and the past few weeks I have been more than content with the ordinary----the familiar. 

My house. My prayer chair. My 3 three squishy bed pillows. My sharpened pencils. My sweet tea. My mundane mornings.

So familiar, so content.

NO Wi-Fi!

5/10/12 NO Wi-Fi----at least no wi-fi without paying at this classy golf resort. My frugal self would not let me pay for this "necessity" especially when the manager explained that wi-fi was available at no charge at all of their other lodgings just NOT their resorts! I could have stayed frustrated or even gotten angry, but God.....had a life lesson for me. I, who am trying to learn to apply simplicity to my life, just needed to put the computer aside and enjoy the time at hand. Live in the moment. Embrace contentment   regardless of the "inconvenience. (Philippians 4:11)

Enjoy life & when it gives you lemons, make lemonade or in this case use them in your sweet tea!

And......enjoy it..........I did!

A cuppa "gentili-TEA"

3/2/13 I was brought up in a home where manners were the way. No opting out. One was to be polite and respectful in all areas of life, not just public. Always polite to others, even in attitude. No muttering under your breath. No eye-rolling allowed.

Today I've wondered if I am being "polite" to God when my "grumblings" continue to surface. I think I'm content but......"grumblings" seem to indicate a lack of satisfaction.

Marginalia from H2H notes (Seville, 2/27/13) was a glaring indicator of my "state."

• Discontent souls lack satisfaction! 

• Contentment comes to the heart of those who thank God.

 Whoa! I need a contentment makeover---I need to brew some gentiliTEA!

Thanks to Norman Mitchell who found this pic on-line.

Reverential awe and respect, or just good old fashion politeness, should be front and center in my relationship with a sovereign God. Such murmurings don't seem "gracious" or grateful.

Sometimes "Life is like a cup of tea" and I need to sweeten mine with a little more gratitude and politeness......

.........gentili-TEA needs to be sipped and savored toward God and others.

Wednesday 8/8/12---GO TEAM GO!

8/8/12 Busch Stadium. Home of the St. Louis Cardinals. A sea of red! There’s nothing quite like rooting for the home team. It’s easy to get caught up in the hoopla as strains of "Take me out to the ballgame" fill the air. Opening pitches from “adorable bald children who are battling cancer, trivia prompts and even Kiss Cam. (not to mention the hot dogs, peanuts, nachos & $$ cokes) and lower temps all added to the fervor.

We weren’t FANS as such. Fans, certainly, but such fervor was incredible even for hubby, who has followed Cards since childhood and keeps up with stats and such. We were there hoping that Matt Cain (former HHS baseball player) would pitch for the SF Giants or at least friends Michael and Lane’s son-in-law, Jason Motte would pitch for the Cards. Neither happened so we were disappointed. Yet game experience was fun anyway. I just tend to get more caught up in the people aspect rather than in the score. Which is a good thing because the Cards lost 15-0.

Isn’t it great that one can enjoy life even without a check in the “win” column?

Seasons of Discontent

7/17/12 If you don’t vote, you can’t complain. I don’t know if those were just Daddy’s words or if it was just the general sentiment of small town folks in Hoptown, where I grew up. Daddy was never a “waster of words” so that would have limited his political discussions to a degree anyway, But…..I NEVER heard him complain. I know it’s hard to believe I’m his daughter---because I, too often. am a waster of words and have been known to cut loose with some complaints.

Complaint often stems from discontent. But God…..has been teaching me contentment like I’ve never known. You see, contentment is a learned condition, it doesn’t come naturally.

Paul reiterates this in Philippians 4:11.

.....for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

I must confess that I much prefer seasons of contentment. And these can come regardless of one's circumstances. These seasons of contentment can translate to seasons of “no complaint”. But, just in case my candidate doesn’t win, I can reserve the right to complain…..because I did vote.

Weeping Wednesday 2010

2/3/10 Last Wednesday I confessed somewhat jokingly to my leadership group that during the past week I had spent a lot of those days in “contentment time-out.” Appropriately, they laughed. Yet it’s sad in a way. Actually by the time I got to the meeting I had moved from time-out to remediation. Thanks to that day’s earlier praise walk, I was on the threshold of Contentment 101. That’s still square 1---and that’s sad! Confession is good for the soul but often it’s enough to make you cry-----thus my weeping Wednesdays.

For the next few months I’ll be studying Philippians with my Heart to Heart group at church. Joy is woven throughout Paul’s entire epistle and he was certainly in dire circumstances. I had been “under my circumstances” (fatigue) which is nowhere for me to be. I know better--- I just couldn’t seem to get my head up. So I am going to hang out in Philippians and ask the Lord to re-teach me the contentment dance.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (Philippians 4:12) NIV

I know contentment is learned; I know that I am blessed beyond measure; I know that I was content throughout my cancer struggle so I know a few of the basic steps. I just have to get my eyes back on my dance partner because I’ve really been stepping on His toes a lot lately---not totally in sync. Maybe I’m trying to do the leading---and that’s a crying shame!