An ugly form of unholiness

We were reading some blogs the other night after Elizabeth went to bed.  We enjoy hearing about other people's experiences through life.  The blogosphere is kind of a virtual coffee shop; a chance to hear the stories of others.  And we LOVE coffee and ENJOY stories even more.  Perfect combo.  After we got done reading....we closed the laptop.  There was a moment of silence between us.

Heidi sliced into the silence with a question.  A question, come to find out, we both shared.

She said, "Do you think we're bad parents?"

"Of course not!""No" "Yes" "No" Um, I don't know" "Yes, No, Yes..." I said.

As we talked we began to notice that both of us lived with unholy discontent.

Discontent because we saw all the cool stuff other parents did and noticed that we didn't do all those things.  Unholy, because what we were really doing was comparing and coveting what others had and did with their kids.

Unholy discontent is ugly -- never measuring up, always feeling like you're not as good as the next guy, seldom satisfied and seldom content.

My suspicion is that there are other parents and readers of this blog that like us also have unholy discontent.  Do you compare yourself to people around you?  Do you have a hard time seeing all the stuff you actually do well?

Can I point us to 1 Timothy 6:6?  It says, "But godliness with contentment is great gain."

I won't elaborate any longer...but let all you unholy discontented people (ourselves included) consider!

For now here's to starting the day with a prayer for all of us, readers included:
Lord Jesus, thank you for the life/family/friends you've given to me.  Please teach me gratitude today and mature me as a someone wholly content under your care.  Amen.