Interesting picture to consider when thinking about contentment and how to learn it's secrets. Most people fall into two categories - thermometers and thermostats. Think about it.
A thermometer personality is someone who merely registers what is around them. If life is going well, with no storms or problems, they are happy, content and peaceful. If life gets a little crazy, a little unfair then they get irritable and stressed and worrisome and fearful. They live their lives dependent on the circumstances around them. They try to be content but their contentment is totally based on what they have and what's happening. Most people live like this, they experience pseudohappiness, a counterfeit high that evaporates quickly. They hope the next superficial satisfaction will last, but external happiness is like cotton candy, sweet one moment but quickly dissolves.
Then there are the thermostats in life. The function of a thermostat is simple - control the temperature, regulate what is happening not just measure it and show no control. There is an inner sense of satisfaction and peace no matter what is happening externally in their lives. They have learned that contentment isn't denying one's feelings about wanting and desiring what one can't have; it exhibits a freedom from being controlled by those feelings. Contentment isn't pretending that things are right when they aren't; instead, these people display a peace that comes from knowing God is bigger than any problems and that He has a plan.
They learn the big secret - Contentment isn't based on external forces or circumstances, it is an internal source, it comes from the heart and it lives and exist inside a person, it's a choice. Contentment is always an inside job! It's one source? A soul-satisfying relationship with our heavenly Father, who cares for us, loves us and promises to meet us where we are.
What kind of a person are you? A thermometer or a thermostat?
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