The Other Side

There’s a Proverb that says, The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Yes and no… There was that one time I used lime and watered extra.. We had the most grass you could imagine! Nowadays, meh.. It’s about as green if not less than the grass next door…

But seriously…

We live in a time when we like to think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. The married friend looks at her single friends and misses the “freedom.” The single friend looks at the married friend and longs for the companionship. The childless couple looks at the couple with children and pray for the day… Meanwhile, the couple with the baby misses the time when they slept through the night and are still trying to adjust to the dramatic shift in their life and relationship that no one told them would occur.

But, the grass is always greener under everybody else’s sky… Or so we tend to think…

That’s the biggest lie we deceive ourselves with, I have discovered. And I cannot, for the life of me understand why? It really doesn’t make us feel all that great at all.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” 1 Timothy‬ ‭6:6-8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

I did something different today. In fact, I’m trying to be intentional about doing this moving forward. In practicing true contentment. I am also exercising thankfulness. You know, I took pause to reflect on how often I truly thank God for everything in my life. It’s easy to thank Him for the good, for the mundane even. But, how often do we remember to thank Him for getting us out of that bad mood? Helping us find that ______ (you fill in the blank – because it’s different for everyone, but for each of us, it could have cost us something). How often do we come back, like the 1 leper out of the 10 and pour out our thanks for healing, blessing, keeping us, our family, our friends. What about thanking Him for prayers answered and not yet answered? Sometimes those closed doors are leading us to an open door, much greater than we could have even imagined. Sometimes that no wasn’t a no but a not yet. But, we failed to thank Him anyway.

When that one leper turned around, realizing his healing, and gave Jesus thanks, glorifying God, he was immediately made whole! Do you recognize the power of thanksgiving? He was content in the healing he had received and glorified God. In that he was made whole!

I am trying to learn that lesson. Because, no, my life didn’t turn out the way I expected it would. And, believe me, my life is far from perfect. Still, I have found a hope in Christ. I have learned to be content. I am so thankful for the closed doors. I am thankful for the open doors that are both seen and unseen. I am thankful for the no’s and the not yet’s. I’m thankful for the good times and the challenging times. I’m thankful for when God heals my sicknesses, my headaches – because sometimes, I forget to say thank You. I’m thankful when He takes away my bad attitude, when He corrects me – even when I didn’t ask for it, because He loves me. And I’m working on saying Thank You!

We can hide behind, God knows my heart. And He does. But, I want to be like that leper. I want to be made whole! I want to give God thanks and glorify Him with my words! He deserves that much and more. I’m learning to be content, because He’s teaching me and showing how green the grass is that He planted just for me!