With the start of a new year, people tend to think about changes and resolutions as if it is the year that would bring such changes in their lives.  Resolutions don’t happen automatically.  This year is already moving forward, but you may choose to change or not to change anything.  Every year will bring joy and sadness; victory and defeat; life and death; it could be a year to plant or to uproot what has been planted.  It is good to make resolutions, but we don’t have to wait for a new year to start.  You can begin anytime, any moment.  But the choice is yours.

Benjamin Franklin once said: “The discontented man finds no easy chair.”  There are many who struggle with contentment. Some people think that to be happy in life, they must accomplish something.  If I get this promotion, then I will be happy; if I marry this person or that one I will truly live happily.  If this happen in my organization, then I will be happy.  Their happiness is circumstantial; it depends on the situation they experience.  The Bible teaches us that we can be content or happy regardless of the situation or circumstance you may find yourselves in.

Webster defines contentment as: satisfied, happy, gratified or pleased. Some people think that in order to be content in life, they must accomplish something. This is the message we hear in our society: in order to be happy you have to have more things, better vacations, fewer troubles. However, the problem truly lies in our sinful self. We often find ourselves discontented in our jobs, our marriages, our churches, our homes, etc. Contentment doesn’t come naturally to us. Benjamin Franklin once said, “To the discontented man no chair is easy”