Imperfectly Content

I had such a good conversation with one of my good friends this morning that I just had to share it - we were discussing the subject of contentment. One of our points was that you're ready to begin your vocation until you are content where you are presently in your life. By content we meant that Jesus satisfies you. One of my dear friends and mentors amber has said to me repeatedly "I love my husband, but he is not the one who satisfies me. It is Jesus who satisfies the desires of my heart." So when I say that we need to be content with our present lives, that is the contentment I am referring to. 

Now what was so good about our conversation? The idea of being imperfectly content. In our 20 somethings it tends to feel like dating and relationships are just constantly plaguing us and eaceh week it seems the news is which friend got engaged this week.. Which is wonderful and I am so happy for all of my friends, but there are also plenty of us who are single - so what are we supposed to do? 

Love Jesus - obviously. But also ensure that Jesus is our satisfaction - he is the only one who satisfies each and every desire of my heart. But that's not to say that we should never long for a relationship. That is normal. That is good. I would be concerned if someone isn't desiring a relationship. It says in the catechism that we desire to love and be loved - thus a desire for a relationship is normal. 

So what do we do when we have this desire for a relationship? We offer it to Jesus. Let's say 95% of the time I love being single. I love having my free time, and the ability to do what I want with my time, without having to seriously consider another person and fitting them into the equation. But what a of the 5% of the time that I long for a relationship - that's okay, and perfectly normal, so in those moments I need to give that discontentment to my Lord. We won't always be perfectly content exactly where we are in our lives, but if we don't learn to be content we will always be left longing for more. And if we don't learn to seek Jesus in those moments of discontentment then we will find ourselves dwelling in those moments - and that's where we need to accept our imperfection caused by our human nature and imperfection. 

So here's to embracing our imperfections and trusting the Lord and having confidence in his plan for us!