To be content?

I was reading some articles on the Noble Womanhood site which is full of wonderful advice on homemaking today. I came across an eye opening article by Laine in which she discusses being content with what we have. I wanted to share this excerpt and verse from the Bible with you.

"Be content with such things as you have."
I lived for three months when I was seventeen in a Muslim household in Tunisia, North Africa without a place to bathe in the house, without a washer and dryer, without a car, without a refrigerator, without a phone, without screens on the windows (flies everywhere), without a flushing toilet or toilet paper, without a dishwasher or even a nice sink. The cooking was done on a little hot plate. The weather was hot, hot, hot. The milk came in a horse drawn cart with flies all around it. If we needed some tomato paste, we bought it in tablespoon increments. Nothing was wasted, because money was scarce. In America we would have considered this family so very poor. But in their country they were middle class. I think about my living conditions there a lot. Especially when I am taking a nice, hot bath. I have so much to be thankful for. So much to be content about. It was the hardest summer of my life. But it was one summer that I learned the most, which has served me well in marriage. My husband says I'm one of the most contented women he knows. I only have to think of my stay in Tunisia, and I am totally content.

Hebrews 13:5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

I am so thankful to God for the roof over my head, the running water, the warm house, the food in my cupboards, the two bedrooms above my head in which my husband and I and the children sleep cosily. I have found myself discontented at times lately with my home and my life. I felt ashamed when I read the article above. I have been unhappy with the size of my home. Yet in comparison to the conditions mentioned above I have so much to be grateful for. God doesn't want us to be discontented with what he has given us. The picture above reminds me of how it used to be for my parents and their parents. Their children didn't have to have a bedroom each, they frequently had to share the same bed with many other siblings and quite often in the same room as the parents. These days we have become so aspirational and desire larger homes, more rooms and so on and it is such an easy trap to fall into.

I want people to see my family as Godly and different. I don't want to fall into worldly traps and appear just the same as the bloke next door trying to better themselves and keep up with the Joneses. As Christians we should be different and we can show this by not allowing ourselves to get caught up in materialism. Who cares what size TV you have? God certainly doesn't!