I love purses and bags and am always on the lookout for new cute ones; it's kind of my weakness (one of them...). Let's see, what is in my purse right now?
phone
gum
hand sanitizer
3 lip products
powder compact
camera
journal
wallet
keys
pens
notepad
ipod
This morning, as I was reading blogs, something hit me that frequently hits me: why do we always want what we don't have? From the shallow to the profound we seem to like being dissatisfied. People with curly hair want it straight. People with straight hair want it curly. Women with big boobs wish they were smaller, women with small boobs get implants to make them bigger. Single people want to get married, married people want the freedom to have affairs. People want to have children, but parents fantasize about their lives before children. People with good jobs want to do something adventurous, people who are living adventurously long for the security of a good job. The really young want to be older, the old want to be younger. It seems to go on and on.
I'm all for self-improvement and life changes can be exciting and beneficial, but wouldn't it be refreshing and peaceful to actually like and enjoy right where you are? For most of my life I really struggled with always wanting what I didn't have, but in the past few years the Lord has really been teaching me to enjoy exactly where I am, for exactly what it is.
The past year of my life was adventurous for sure. I quit a job, went through a terrible depression, my best friend and roommate of over 3 years moved to Atlanta, I moved from my lifelong home in Texas to Portland, Oregon, was unemployed and didn't know anyone, made new friends, got a job in a restaurant, had to move several times, made lots of bad choices, moved back to Texas, went to my little brother's wedding, was unemployed for the whole summer, moved back to Portland, got my restaurant job back, went on more job interviews than I care to think about, went on several bad dates, finally got the kind of job I've always wanted, and now it seems like I will live in Oregon for at least the next couple of years, far away from my beloved family and Texas.
Do you know what I want? A very plain, normal, boring life. I would love to be married to a man who works 9-5, living in a modest suburban home in the Houston area, and raising 2.5 children and a dog. But that is SO not what I have. And instead of whining about it, I feel like God has graciously asked me to enjoy it. I'm not married, I don't have children, for a while I had a very carefree job, and now I have a job I adore. I love traveling, I love cultural experiences and natural beauty. I know that one day I will look back at this season of my life and absolutely love and cherish every memory. This may not be exactly what I would have chosen, but it is good, maybe better...no definitely better and I am enjoying it for what it is.
I just think that life would be more enjoyable and lived more to the fullest and to God's glory if we chose to make the most of, appreciate, and love exactly where we are in life (as much as possible). I'm not saying we can't admit when we're going through hard times and when life sucks, but let's not miss out on the good stuff because we're so busy focusing on what we wish we had, be it curly hair or a home in the suburbs.
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