Overcoming Discontentment

It feels traitorous to admit discontentment.  We wives ask ourselves…

•     Isn’t that the same as saying I am unhappy in my family life?  
•     Is there something wrong with me?  
•     Am I just wanting what I cannot have?

Rest assured, dear wife, we all feel this way from time to time.  It’s what we do with those emotions that defines our marriages.  The choices we make shape our outlook and our outcomes.

Dealing with Discontentment

Hebrews 13:5 reminds us to be content with what we have.  That requires conscious effort, discipline, and lots of prayer.  It takes many conversations with the Lord, sitting in his presence and letting the peace of Christ consume your heart.  

Sometimes, we need to ask God to help us keep our hearts pure from envy.  It is so easy to want what someone else has.  If we aren’t careful, this can take over our thoughts.

We have a choice on where we allow our thoughts to wander.  Are you choosing, as we are instructed in Philippians 4:8, to think on the “good stuff”?  Or are you choosing to spend your pondering time focusing on those things that cause you discontentment?

Choosing Contentment

God wants us to put our focus on our marriage and on our family rather than on what we don’t have.  He wants us to honor him in our actions as wives and mothers.  He wants us to find delight in him, and in these special people he has given us to love and care for. Psalm 37:4 promises us that when we do this, he will give us the desires of our hearts.

Wives, my challenge for you today is to put your focus on God, your marriage and your family. Stop looking to the right or the left, wishing your life mimicked the life of someone else.  

Stop focusing on what causes you discontent, and put your focus on the parts of “your people” that bring you joy. The love, the laughter, the experiences that make your family precious to you.

Know, really KNOW, that what God has given you is uniquely yours and meant to bring you joy and contentment.  

Wife Step: Don’t let the enemy trap you in a pit of “the grass is greener.”  Take a good look at your own lush lawn and give God glory for all that you are blessed with. By counting your blessings, you’ll be choosing contentment.

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Betty Predmore is an author, speaker, blogger, and ministry leader. Betty has experienced broken homes, divorce, abuse, grief, being a single mother, blended families, and adoption.  Betty uses the broken places and movement of God in her own life to share God’s Word in an inspiring way, sprinkled with honesty, humor, and encouragement, and reflecting the love of Jesus to all she meets. 

Betty is the Founding Director of two community faith-based ministries.  Mom-Sense helps women overcome life struggles through small group classes with biblical curriculum, individual counseling, bibles studies, and other areas of support.  The Imperial Valley Coalition for Life is a pro-life organization that values the sanctity of life and encourages women to choose life by offering various means of support throughout pregnancy and infancy.

Betty has published two devotionals:  Pondering Virtue and Whispered Grace. Betty is honored to be a part of the A Wife Like Me contributor team.  She has also contributed to other publications such as Southern Faith Magazine, Purposeful Life, and Aspiring Woman Magazine.  She is also a contributor for several online Christian blogging sites.

Of all her roles in life, Betty is most honored to be wife to Jim and mama to a brood of 7, which includes biological and adopted children.

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