I had a lightbulb moment the other day. At our Friday ladies Bible study there are a few questions that are asked after the study (which is entitled Follow by Andy Stanley). One of the questions was something like “has your life turned out better or worse than you imagined it would when you were younger?”
My answer to that was that my life has turned out far, far better than I ever dreamed it would. As a teenager, I had a very low self-esteem and poor self-image. I didn’t know if anyone would ever want to date me, let alone marry me!
So imagine Mike coming along and us falling in love. It is true that he did not come with a lot of earthly possessions – a guitar and a iron come to mind, but he came with a great deal of humility and love for God and me! That was enough for me. I bought a car into the relationship and an iron, so we had two irons! We bought all the other stuff we needed (mostly second hand). We did not have a lot of money. Mike was in full time Christian service. I was a newly qualified nursing sister.
We married and six months later, after a lot of prayer and consideration, Mike took up an offer of a job back in land-surveying. We moved to Paarl for 2 and a half years. There we had Stacey. Mike, feeling insecure in the private sector accepted a job at the City of Cape Town and became a civil servant.
We found the cheapest house in the cheapest neighbourhood in our area and we moved back to Cape Town. Sun Valley became our home. A small regular Sun Valley house that cost us R67000. I remember moving in and feeling so very secure in our tiny little house.
My happiness was complete when David was born.
We could make ends meet on Mike’s salary but he was keen for me to keep my hand in and try and be a little economically viable. I’m so glad he did encourage me. It meant that the decades ahead I would be useful as a Mom and a wife inside the home and as a worker outside the home.
And so as I look back on my life, it turned out FAR better than I could ever have imagined. We are not ‘high fliers’, great travellers or big socializers. We move in humble circles. We drive ordinary cars and still live in our Sun Valley house, albeit a bigger one since we built on. God has blessed us.
I am content.
BUT what if I had had far higher expectations when I was in my teens. What if I had a great self image and huge expectations of a rich husband, a palatial home, expensive cars, overseas trips and the best schools for my high-flying children?
That was the lightbulb that came on. My happiness and contentment and great appreciation for how my life has turned out is because my initial expectations were very low.
My life has far exceeded them.
How grateful I am for that.
So much of happiness and contentment is dependent on attitude.
So # 223 of my 1000 thanks is for simplicity and averageness that has lead to this contentment.
Zechariah 4:10
Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…
Be happy with the little things in life because one day, you will realise they were big things.
Like a guitar and an iron.
These are the days!
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂