I think sometimes our busyness comes from a lack of satisfaction. We look around our living room (after looking at a bunch of living rooms in a fancy magazine or online), and we feel like it’s just not right. Our coffee table is scratched. We don’t have trendy pillow covers, and our rug has one stain too many. We feel the need for more, for something better. We spend a lot of time on the hunt for more. We busy ourselves with creating the perfect space.
Maybe it’s a different area of your life. Maybe you’re not satisfied with your activities’ calendar. Everyone else’s life looks like they are involved in so many great things…and they’re happy. You end up filling your weeks (and your child’s weeks) with non-stop activity in the hopes of filling that dissatisfied ache. You weren’t satisfied, you got busy, and wait, you’re still not content.
What if you started looking around your life, looking around your home, looking at the people in your life? What if you started looking around at all these things with a thankful heart, with a heart that is satisfied with what is before you?
Sometimes, at night, right before I go to bed (when the lighting is right and the main rooms of my house are tidy), I smile big. I’m so happy and thankful…satisfied. Later, just 12 hours later, my people are up and those same rooms, that same house looks, well, it doesn’t look as neat and tidy and lovely as it did the night before. I become a little grumpy, a little discontent…a little dissatisfied. If only my living room was a little larger, my rug a little newer, my kids a little less messy. How quickly our view point can change. How easily we can allow our thoughts and hearts to move us to that place of discontentment and dissatisfaction.
At this point in the year we take intentional time to pause and be thankful. Are you satisfied with what you have right now? Can you rest (and be just a little less busy) knowing that there are so many amazing gifts all around you? Can you be thankful for what you have and let go of the (often present) need for more?
May this Thanksgiving find you with a heart of gratitude, a heart that is satisfied with where you are and what you have.
What about you? Are you satisfied and thankful this season?
Until next time,
Charissa
