Being Content

Sarah is a Christian wife and mom of two girls.  I love life and am learning how to give thanks in all things.  I enjoy blogging as a way to share with others the blessings and joys in life that are out there if we just look around! You can find her blog here and shop here. Read more posts from Sarah here.
This week on my own blog, wrote a couple of posts on the issue of contentment.  I shared how there are times or situations in my life were I experience a certain amount of discontent.  Times where I feel like everything is working against what I would have wished for in my life or would have hoped for in a particular circumstance.  I then wrote a post about what to do about that.
What I discovered through these reflections was that living in a spirit of discontentment means that you are unable to truly embrace life.  How can you truly appreciate the little things in life when you're too caught up in the big picture and how it is dragging you down?  I discovered that it is quite possible that much of my discontent is of my own making and could actually be avoided in the future if I learn to recognize certain patterns in my behavior and attitude towards things so that I can nip it in the bud.
What I really learned through this discovery is that you truly can embrace life in a season of difficulty.  You must work harder sometimes to figure out how make it work for you, but I'm thinking now that it can be done!!  
We have a special needs child.  She's not just special needs - she is also medically fragile, which just adds a whole other level of complexity to our situation with her.  It also makes simple things like "date nights" next to impossible.  Or that is what I keep telling myself.  It also means that we can't do things as a "foursome" {me, my husband and both our girls}.  Or at least it seems next to impossible to do so.  I could really get down on myself for a number of things that won't ever happen where our special needs daughter is concerned.  She won't ever walk {or even crawl, sit or stand}, much less play soccer, dance, run, and play with other kids.  But I can relish in the smiles that I get from her and her laugh that is so infectious.  And I have to swallow that bitter pill of what she can't do and accept that while allowing our other daughter to experience all those things because she can do them.  She just finished up her third soccer season and we truly enjoyed some great moments with her.

My Moira - the little blonde girl front and center!

In reality, what I need to do is to embrace this life that I have been given.  I need to utilize the resources we have {such as home nursing} and schedule such that my daughter has appropriate in-home care while my husband and I do something with our older daughter.  Here's the key - it has to be without guilt feelings.  I find myself taking on so many guilt feelings whenever we do something that excludes the one child because it's not practical to bring her.  In reality, we have another daughter who just wants our time and attention and for us to do things with her that she will remember - that will have meaning for her one day.
We need to embrace all of our life - even the trials that make the seemingly ordinary "family things" that others seem to be able to do effortlessly - so that we can enjoy this time.  The more we are able to enjoy the season we are in, the more content will will find ourselves with life in general.