As you ramble on through life Brother,

Whatever be your goal,

Keep your eye upon the donut,

And not upon the hole.

Margaret Atwood

This was a cute, little rhyme I came across that reminded me how easily we focus on our lack instead of our blessings. You may not spend any time thinking about the missing donut hole when you are enjoying your favorite donut, but we often do this in life. We become unappreciative of all that God has given us, sometimes seemingly unaware of how thankful we should be for all the Lord has entrusted us with. As Americans, we are consistently taught by culture to be striving for the next great thing that is going to make us happy. All along God is the only one that can fill that empty hole that we feel. As Christians we have the MOST to be thankful for!! There is nothing I am more thankful for than my relationship with Jesus, which is the only place I find peace and trust that continues to grow deeper the more I press into this relationship with him.

Oxford Dictionaries defines the word “content” as “in a state of peaceful happiness”. How often can you describe your demeanor as “in a state of peaceful happiness”. If you are looking to find it in today’s world, it is hard to come by! I would encourage you that you will not find contentment in the world, you will find only find true contentment in the Lord. 

I think so often we focus on the next big thing. It starts when we are young. Everything will be better when we hit high school and have a driver’s license. Do you remember the freedom you craved that would come with these milestones? As soon as you reached them, then it was getting out of your parent’s house, maybe graduating college, getting that first big job, getting married or having kids….or… The list goes on and on, if you let it, when we are searching for our happiness outside of Christ. If you live your life always believing that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, it ends in a whole lot of disappointments when you finally reach the other side of the fence and find the grass isn’t any different here than it was there. So the question remains….are you keeping your eye upon the donut….or the hole? The blessings or the lack?

The Bible specifically commands us not to covet in the 10th Commandment:

Exodus 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s. 

and in Matthew we are reminded about where our priorities should be.

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

It is pretty clear that we are not to covet the things of this earth, no matter whether they are inherently bad or good. We see several stories in the Bible of how things went all wrong for God’s chosen when they focused on what the did NOT have, rather than the blessings that they DID possess. The Bible starts off pretty quickly pointing out this human weakness with Eve and the serpeant: 

Genesis 3:1-7 The serpeant said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. 

Adam and Eve could have had ANY fruit in the garden, but they were not content with what God gave them. They wanted what was off limits. You may say that the serpeant tricked them and that it wasn’t a lack of contentment that led them to this decision. Well my friends, I don’t think I have to tell you that the devil has only gotten more crafty since the days in the Garden of Eden and the things that the enemy uses to rattle our happiness are far shinier and more enticing than a piece of fruit! Beware of what seems like a blessing you can’t live without, because it is a weakness of character that the devil will surely use to entice you and lead you on a path that you don’t want to go down.

Even King David who had riches and power beyond measure got enticed into what was not his….

2 Samuel 11:2-5 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, ³ and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” ⁴ Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. ⁵ The woman conceived.

In 2 Samuel 11:6-17 the story continues….To conceal what David had done, he sent for Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to come home from battle and sleep with his wife so that noone would know that the child was David’s. However, Uriah’s conscience would not allow him to enjoy relations with his wife knowing that his men were on the battlefield. David’s plan was foiled and so he ordered Uriah to be placed in a position where he would be killed in battle. David married Bathsheba so that his secret would not be revealed….yet. Read 2 Samuel 12 for the rest of this story.

The decision of David to take another man’s wife for himself led to his unraveling. All because he wanted something that was not his. He listened to his flesh and not the word of God. Maybe it’s not adultery you are struggling with, but we are all tempted with what we do not have from time to time. Let us focus on what we HAVE. For starters we have the love of Christ! May we be the MOST thankful for this in our lives, no matter what else we are blessed with or are lacking. May we always keep our eye on this relationship when other relationships may be unraveling before our eyes. Make it a part of your day to be grateful and thank God for what he has blessed you with. When you find your thoughts or emotions tempting you to covet what is not yours, redirect yourself to praise God instead. Praise the Lord for what he has transformed in your life, praise him for what he is going to do in your life. Thank him for what you have and thank him that he is not done with any of us yet. If you are still breathing, then he isn’t done with you yet! Thank him for every good thing in your life, down to the perfect parking spot. When you focus on the what you have and don’t dwell on what you don’t, you shift your mind towards gratitude which over time changes everything. God is good and he gives us everything in his perfect timing.

Psalm 37:4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.