Welcome!

 
Toggle
Print

Seed Thoughts

Lynette HaginBy Lynette Hagin


When I think of the advancements that have taken place in the world since my birth, I am amazed. In earlier years, Ken and I took our children to Disneyland and visited Tomorrow Land. I was awed at the proposed future technology. Today, most of us now use the technology that was predicted back in the 70s and 80s.



Yet, it seems that with the latest technology, people today are more discontented about life than ever before. People don’t enjoy the pleasures and possessions they’ve been blessed with and are always searching for more.

Paul penned a profound statement: “. . . for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:11–13 NLT).

The Message says it a little more plainly, “. . . I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.”

As a child, I found myself not being content with the stage of life that I was in at the moment. Being a very independent child, I anxiously awaited the time that I would learn to drive and not have to depend on anyone for transportation. In the state of Texas at that time, the legal driving age was 14 if you took a driver’s education course. I signed up the minute I qualified and began driving at 14. In looking at children now, I shudder to think that I was driving in the summer following 8th grade.

After finally accomplishing what I had longed for, I found that I didn’t enjoy that stage of my life anymore. Instead, I wanted to advance to the next stage of my life. I wanted to get married, have children, and fulfill the call of God upon my life. When these things began to happen in my life and I still wasn’t content, I began to realize that I wasn’t enjoying the different stages of my life. Instead, I was always waiting for the next big event to take place. I decided to correct my attitude and enjoy life as it passed me by.

I want to encourage you to do the same. The world has taught us that life is about material things. If you can become big enough, respected enough, rich enough, powerful enough, you will be content and happy in life. However, material possessions alone do not bring you peace and happiness. Some of the most miserable people in the world are able to purchase everything this world possesses. A relationship with God is the only thing that brings peace and contentment in a person’s life.

A man in his 80s was asked, “If you had one word of advice for young people, what would it be?” “Don’t hurry through life,” he replied. “I hurried through life. I was always in a hurry to get to the next thing. I just knew that something better was waiting for me. When I was in my forties, I realized that there had been good things to enjoy in every stage of my life. But I missed them because I was looking forward to something better.”

Let me admonish you: Enjoy life. Enjoy your children at the stage they are in now. Enjoy the house you are living in now. Enjoy the job you have now. Don’t take the attitude: When my kids get to this age, it will be better. Or, when I make more money or get a bigger house, life will be more enjoyable. No, enjoy life now! Make it fun. Life is too short not to live every moment to its fullest.

Someone once said, “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” Live, laugh, enjoy. Enjoy the phase that you are in. One day you may want that phase back. Make the best of every situation and be content. You’ll find that circumstances will improve if you will make God the very center of your life.
Lynette's signature