Quotes About Contentment

i am enough

The antithesis of giving thanks is grumbling. The grumblers live in a state of self-induced stress.

Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense," she remembers. "Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it" (Colossians 3:13–14, The Message).

Dear Abba, I'm starting out free today, free from the advertised lies that promise me everything from four-doors of turbo-charged happiness to some contraption that will shake, rattle, and roll my abs back into a pack I never had even in my twenties. It would be comical if it wasn't so sad: all of our desires to make ourselves worthy of this world but unfit for the world to come. I want to be a follower of the sacred dream, and one day arrive fully free, free at last.

Faith means you want God and want to want nothing else.

After reading Brodie, I've decided that if I had my life to live over again, I would not only climb more mountains, swim more rivers, and watch more sunsets; I wouldn't only jettison my hot water bottle, raincoat, umbrella, parachute, and raft; I would not only go barefoot earlier in the spring and stay out later in the fall; but I would devote not one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth. No, not one.

I know you will get disgruntled at times and start to act out, but the longer you spend time in the presence of Jesus, the more accustomed you grow to His face, the less adulation you will need because you will have discovered for yourself that He is Enough. And in the Presence, you will delight in the discovery of what it means to live by grace and not by performance.

A bird in hand is a certainty. But a bird in the bush may sing.

I am content that others should be wiser than I.

Tomorrow, he thought, sounds wonderful: a day for oneself, a day to stretch out on a soft piece of green grass under a birch tree—the kind that had invited him today as he walked toward Falken, with its delicate leaves showing blue sky between them; a book to read, sleep to come softly; no one talking, questioning; no one to worry about, whether friend or enemy. A day to be kept for oneself.

Solitary people, these book lovers. I think it's swell that there are people you don't have to worry about when you don't see them for a long time, you don't have to wonder what they do, how they're getting along with themselves. You just know that they're all right, and probably doing something they like.

It occurred to me that I was unhappy. And it didn't feel so very terrible. No urgency, nothing. I could slip out of my life on a slow wave like this—it didn't matter. I don't have to be happy. All I have to do is hold on to something and wait.

Standing there, staring at the long shelves crammed with books, I felt myself relax and was suddenly at peace.

Before bed each night, I reread my notes and studied the Bible, savoring its rich lessons. Right there in bold print, for anyone to read, was the message of love. God treasured all his children equally, regardless of gender. For the first time in my life, I was truly content simply being a person, not a wife, not a mother, not a woman. A person.

Many people have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

In those days you did not really need anything, not even the rabbit's foot, but it was good to feel it in your pocket.

As a day well spent gives joyful sleep, so does a life well spent give joyful death. —Leonardo da Vinci

At that age, they're as happy as they can be. Life seems endless, the sorrows few.

I'm too old for talks. I gave that up when I turned sixty. I'd done enough talking in my life by then. Nowadays I neither speak nor listen to what anybody else has to say.

Perhaps tranquility is what distinguishes the environment in which wealthy people live, he thought. - Kurt Wallander

I've got all the money I'll ever need. If I die by 4:00.

Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later and somewhere else. Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.

We often say, "I am not very happy. I am not content with the way my life is going. I am not really joyful or peaceful. But I don't know how things can be different, and I guess I have to be realistic and accept my life as it is." It is this mood of resignation that prevents us from actively naming our reality, articulating our experience, and moving more deeply into the life of the Spirit.

We often live as if our happiness depended on having. But I don't know anyone who is really happy because of what he or she has. True joy, happiness, and inner peace come from the giving of ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others. That truth, however, is usually discovered when we are confronted with our brokenness.