Quaker Story About Contentment

Most of the time, I'm pretty content. But, have you noticed how advertisements tend to make us discontented with our situation? Sure, I am content with the home I have until I see the one HGTV is giving away. I'm content with going to the closet and finding something I like to wear until I see an ad for those new fashionable clothes. TV commercials are of the devil I have decided because they tend to make us discontented with what God has provided for us.

I have shared this story before but it illustrates so well the idea of contentment.

A Quaker put a sign on his house one day that said,

"I will give this house to any man who can prove to me that he is content."

After a bit someone came knocking at the door and said he saw the sign out front and wanted to claim the house. He said he was perfectly content. The Quaker asked what he meant. He said,

"I have everything I want, all the money I need, everything in life that could satisfy. I am perfectly content."

The Quaker said, "Friend, if thee is so content what does thee want with my house?"
That's a revelation of how subtly these desires for more can creep into our thinking.
Contentment is not having all that you want. True contentment is wanting only what you have and being content with it.

"Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation, whether it be a full stomach or hunger, plenty or want; for I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power." Philippians 4:11-13 Living Bible