"Learning" to be Content

“A dog at the feet of her mistress, a cat curled up in front of the family fireplace, a cow in the midst of a green pasture–these are pictures of contentment far beyond what most human beings enjoy.” Dorothy Kelley Patterson, BeAttitudes for women

I like this statement and believe everyone can learn from it. It helps that I enjoy watching and photographing cows and deer. This certainly provides me with the word picture she creates. This is “peaceful satisfaction” in my mind.

So few individuals practice the art of contentment. Paul said “he learned” to be content. “For I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."—Philippians 4:11. This is a state you must strive to attain. It won’t come unless you seek it.

Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “THE APOSTLE Paul was a very learned man, but not the least among his manifold acquisitions in science was this—he had learned to be content. Such learning is far better than much that is acquired in the schools. Their learning may look studiously back on the past, but too often those who cull the relics of antiquity with enthusiasm, are thoughtless about the present, and neglect the practical duties of daily life ... It was a thing of ever-present utility, and alike serviceable for all generations, one of the rarest, but one of the most desirable accomplishments.” http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0320.htm

Fanny Crosby, 1820-1915, wrote about it:

“O what a happy soul am I! Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world Contented I will be;
How many blessings I enjoy That other people don’t!
To weep and sign because I’m blind, I cannot, and I won’t.”

In Job 36:11, Elihu says: “If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment.” Contentment is an important element in living. If you’re not content, your life will be spent striving to find happiness with things. We can only be content when we’re following God’s plan for our life and living within His laws.

It seems being content was learned very early in the life of the world. Socrates, 470-399 B.C. said: “He is richest who is content with the least.”

Charles Spurgeon continues his teaching on being content: “Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated. It will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in it. Paul says, ‘I have learned to be content;’ as much as to say he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the mystery of that great truth.”

One of my favorite poets, Edgar A. Guest, had these words to say at the end of his poem titled “Contentment”:

“So I fancy the joy which men strive to win
Is born of something which lies within,
A strain of courage no care can break,
A love for beauty no thief can take--
The pride of neighbors, the faith of friends
And a mind at peace when the sun descends.”

Where are those cows? I want to spend a little while watching them. There’s still more to learn.