First of all, I’m sorry I haven't posted anything in a
while. I have been super busy with school and such. Anyhoo, let’s get on to the
article.
A few weeks ago I went to a Teenpact alumni event called
“Survival”. Just from the title you can probably guess what was going on. We
slept in uninsulated cabins and also outside in homemade shelters, we cooked
our own meals and came up with some interesting
concoctions. We learned about surviving if we were to get stranded somewhere
and we were also learning how to survive as Christians out in the real world.
I got a lot out of that week, but one of the big things that
I learned during the week was contentment. We had to turn in all our electronic
devices at the beginning of the week, so like cellphones, iPods, Tablets, and
eBooks. No electronics for a week can be interesting for some people, for me I
like listening to music when I fall asleep however I wasn't able to because I
had to turn in my iPod.
That was contentment jolt #1. The next one was the food. Now I’m not going to say the food was bad, it was actually quite good most of the time the only bad thing was we never really got enough food for everyone. I am usually quite a picky eater but when you’re at survival, you eat what you get. I ate vegetable soup, and some baked beans mixed with salsa and rice there at survival. I usually hate that stuff but I had to be content with what I got. That was contentment jolt #2. Jolt 3 was kinda interesting. Since we were sleeping in non-insulated cabins, it was quite cold, especially in the mornings. I found myself complaining in my mind about it being so cold, and I realized that I do that kind of stuff all the time. I complain that it’s too cold or too hot, maybe if it’s raining or if it isn’t. So that was contentment jolt #3.
That was contentment jolt #1. The next one was the food. Now I’m not going to say the food was bad, it was actually quite good most of the time the only bad thing was we never really got enough food for everyone. I am usually quite a picky eater but when you’re at survival, you eat what you get. I ate vegetable soup, and some baked beans mixed with salsa and rice there at survival. I usually hate that stuff but I had to be content with what I got. That was contentment jolt #2. Jolt 3 was kinda interesting. Since we were sleeping in non-insulated cabins, it was quite cold, especially in the mornings. I found myself complaining in my mind about it being so cold, and I realized that I do that kind of stuff all the time. I complain that it’s too cold or too hot, maybe if it’s raining or if it isn’t. So that was contentment jolt #3.
There were a few other things that kinda gave me a jolt but
those 3 are the main ones. So what did I get out of this, you might be asking.
Well, I learned that I have sooooo much here at home that I should be grateful
for and be content with what I have. At home we have heating and cooling
systems, a good insulated house, soft beds, and good filling meals (Thanks
mom!). Those are just a few things that I named that we should be happy and
grateful for.
I guess the reason I wrote this is because we so often as
humans take things for granted and we complain when we don’t get exactly what
we want. We talk about the Israelites sometimes and we are always going on
about how ungrateful they were, but honestly we are no different except for the
fact that what we complain about isn't getting written down (Yet).
I would encourage you to look at everything you have and
realize just how fortunate you are for what you have and what God has done for
you.
Hope you all enjoyed the article and got something out of
it!
Chipper signing off.
