Feeding the Seeds of Discontent

By Kalley C [Kalendy M. B. Chiu]

A few weeks ago, my husband shared a conversation he had with another husband and father. You see, this gentleman always looked at my husband and wondered how he does what he does.

He wondered how can a family survive on one income, two children, a wife that stays home, and home school. Aside from thinking that we were crazy, he wondered how can we manage all the things that do.

Our setup was his ideal.

In the meantime, my husband was wondering how he does everything he do. Since both parents work outside of the home, there must be enough wiggle room for expenses.

His setup looked so much better than ours-or so it seems.

But as Mr. C and the other gentleman began to talk, they removed their misconceptions of each other lives.

They both talked about their setup, what they thought the other person had, and why they thought it was so much better.

After they shared the truth with one another, they both walked away content with their current situation.

You see, they both thought each other grass was greener. They both thought that the other one was doing it better and living it up.

That perception couldn’t be farther from the truth!

When we feed the seeds of discontent by thinking other people’s lives are better, we are saying to ourselves that there is something wrong with how we’re living.  We start to doubt our purpose and path in life.

When we look at another person’s success, we only see the end results, but we don’t see what they have done to get there.

The times we start to think like this, we must remind ourselves: no one’s grass is truly greener.

All of our experiences are unique, and we all have a season to shine. This is hard to remember at times, and we find ourselves comparing our lives. We begin to wish for something different.

You know how the saying goes: When you look for problems, you’ll find them.

It’s hard to remind ourselves that we don’t know the other person’s whole story. With social media today, we can see how “perfect” other people lives are on feeds, and everything that they are doing and “winning” at.

At the same time, we look at ourselves and see everything that we not achieving.

To fight the feelings of discontent, here is what I do:

Pray. I pray the Lord’s Prayer. When I say, “Thy will be done…” I internalize those words. I can want something, but God understand when it’s a time for me to have it or not to have it at all. When I go against His will, it will be an up hill battle. When I work on God’s time, everything falls into place.

Remind myself of my goals and the direction of my family. Is what I want in line what my family needs. Is it in line with the goals of my marriage. Who will I be serving if I follow that path?

Disconnect, and find my balance once again. When we are always engaged with our surroundings, we sometimes become part of it. We end up following trends of the crowd instead of walking to our rhythm. When I get like this, I disengage, and I come back when I’m ready to handle this perceived pressure.

Remember: a person’s grass may be greener than yours, but you don’t know what they had to do, and what they put in that grass, to get it so green.

We must tend to our garden instead.

 

ABOUT AUTHOR

Kalley is a writer, thinker, wife, mother and everything rolled into one. She writes about life, family, faith, love and anything else that makes her sane. But most importantly, she writes about her journey to know herself better. You can find out more about her over at Blogging While Nursing Follow on Facebook // Twitter // Pinterest For more of Kalley’s post on EMB, go HERE