Contentment

I'm a no frills kinda girl.

I love looking at fine jewelry but I rarely wear any.

I used to have such awesome 80's permed hair-band hair. Now I have a super flat hair that I hide under an ugly pink mommy hat.

I have two or three not-awful outfits that I wear repeatedly, and trust me: they are comfortable, not fashionable. For example, my daughter tried to get me to wear her necklace and said, "Mom! This would look so good with that sweater you wear to church every Sunday."

I own two pairs of heels. I call them funeral shoes, because I wear them to funerals. But I also wear them to weddings and adoptions. Otherwise, its just basic comfy shoes (ie, flip flops, flat mary janes, etc).

All of my little ones' clothes are second-hand, either from the thrift store or given to us. Mine, too. I absolutely love Platos Closet and Once Upon a Child.

My van has two dents in it and smells like old people inside. I think I have 4 or 5 packs of diaper wipes in it just for emergencies.

I might buy 1 CD a year, so my kids have to listen to either classical music on the radio, or my boring CDs over and over again. =0)

I keep a diaper and wipes in my purse, along with matchbox cars, 3 or 4 bottles of hand sanitizer (just in case I run out), and various flavors of chapstick.

My big bright pink purse, which I get so many compliments on, came from The Good Steward consignment shop, and My Sunshine made me buy it, because she said I carry boring, practical purses.

I'm so cheap that I use cloth diaper wipes for tissue instead of the boxed paper kind. I'm telling you...wipe your nose on a Fuzzy Bunz and you will never be able to tolerate rubbing paper against your face again.

I can make 6 months of contacts stretch 4 years, and I will wear my glasses so long that they cannot be seen out of because of the scratches.

I usually cut my own hair, and my mom-in-law cuts hair for the other 8 people in our household....cuz we are just that cheap. And she does a great job!

I am so practical, I talk myself out of almost everything fun because it would require a long drive, energy, or money. I don't do six flags...I just tell my little ones to play in the mud in the backyard all summer and then I wash it off in their baby pool.

I am frustrated that my toddlers are getting too old(and curious) for all of us to take a shower together, because I really like just killing 4 birds with one stone. =0)

I am really a very, very boring person.

I've come to accept myself, and I hope the people I meet can say I am genuine.

I hope people feel comfortable around me. They should: I'm the biggest dork in the world, and I am okay with that. DORKS UNITE!

How can my life be so absurdly boring, and yet I feel so blessed?

I'm just content. Contentment is the best thing that I ever gave myself.

My life is so "perfect," and I am so undeserving.

Nothing can give a person this type of peace in life...other than God.

No one and nothing can complete you....Not a spouse, having another child, driving that dream car, buying the big perfect home, having designer clothes, having really awesome hair, or abs/buns of steel.

God...God completes me. He's the missing piece. He's the gold at the end of the rainbow. And when I really learned to seek Him first, everything changed for me. Everything.

The most important thing in my life should be my relationship with God. And if that is intact, then everything else just flows along as it should.

And even when things are difficult and troubling, I know without doubt my God is in control.

I don't wrestle with my faith, hope in my future with Him, or trust in Him.

I wrestle with my expectations of myself, what I require of myself as a wife and mother. And while I DO think I should strive to be a better example of Christ's unconditional love and grace to my family, I have to remember to give myself a little grace.

So when I lay in bed at night, and the wheel starts to spin and I begin to replay the the day on the big screen in my head, I note what I should have done better. And then I ask God to give me grace and another chance tomorrow. I ask the Holy Spirit to tug at my heart in the moment so I later don't have any regrets. And I ask God, the Father of my children, to photoshop out the imperfections of me as their mother, and to help them see HIM in spite of ME.

I tell everyone I know that my life is perfect. Not that I am living a perfect life, because I am very unfaithful. But I am content, and that makes life feel perfect.

I want for nothing. My shepherd leads me beside still waters, though the valley of the shadow of death, and on to the table perpared for me in front of those who despise me.

He restores my soul, bathes me in His love, and wakes me every morning with brand new mercies blooming all over the place.

Seek God and the rest falls into place. Seeking God doesn't make Him your genie in your bottle. Its more like when you plug yourself into Him as your powersource, and he updates your operating system, you start to think more like Him. And you can find joy in the simple, small imperfect things in your life.