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I want to encourage you to be very contented with how God has created you. Appreciate God’s creativity in you, and at the same time, never settle for staying where you are in your spiritual growth and maturity. Accept but don’t settle.
Your Circumstances
Let me mention one more thing where we need to be contented, and that is with our circumstances. Paul wrote: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11b). Have you learned that lesson yet? Just think about the freedom you and I would have if we could truly say with Paul: “I am content with my circumstances.”
I think of a friend whom I admire greatly. She worked for Moody Radio in Chicago for many years, and is a gracious, lovely, talented woman. Due to a work-related accident, her husband was disabled most of their long-married life. When that happened, overnight her dreams of what her life would be like died, as she was forced to become a working woman and raise their children, while helping her disabled husband.
When I think of the years she did that, I marvel at her attitude. She never complained; she learned to be content in the midst of very difficult circumstances. And even when more family problems were poured on her head, she continued to trust God and accept what was coming her way.
Through all the years she never lost heart or gave up or ran away—all of which I would have been tempted to do. Instead, she contributed immensely to her job and improved herself and did the most anyone could do “under the circumstances,” as we say. She comes to my mind as a woman who has accepted the circumstances of her life, and yet they have not beaten her into the ground. She has grown and contributed and made a beautiful life for herself.