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Happy Camper

Happy Camper

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Happy Camper--Bryce CanyonWhat makes you a happy camper?

  • Vacations to national parks such as Bryce Canyon?
  • Roasting marshmallows and making smores?
  • Fishing at a local lake?
  • Attending or remembering summer camps?
  • Relaxing in the back yard after a hard day’s work?

If you are a happy camper, you are content.

You enjoy life or at least the moment.

 Contentment may occur in two ways:

  1. Based on circumstances: If everything goes as you wish, you are a happy camper. If circumstances don’t go your way, you are not.

  1. Regardless of circumstances: You may have occasional unhappy moments. However, you usually remain satisfied whatever happens.

If you never learn to be content, you will never be a happy camper.

You will often feel:

  • Angry
  • Irritable
  • Upset
  • Displeased with everyone and everything

Let God’s joy fill you with contentment.

When you find joy in life, circumstances may not always make you feel happy. However, you can be a happy camper. You experience purpose and pleasure in all life’s ups and downs, You also share God’s joy with others.

“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want “(Philippians 4:12 NIV).

Thanks to Carole Fite for the suggestion.

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It Is What It Is

It Is What It Is

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It Is What It Is--stump with a moose carvingIt is what it is. That reality applies to all of life. Much we can change, but not everything.

It is what it is refers to a situation we can’t change.

We don’t like it, but we can’t undo what has been done, so we:

  • Accept it
  • Do the best we can
  • Move on with our lives

We must deal with life as it comes.

When we can’t change it, we make the most of it. Yes, it is frustrating. Yes, it is hard. That’s life. We deal with it as it is.

A simple example: What do we do with a stump? The tree is gone. Do we:

  • Do nothing and leave the stump where it is?
  • Dig it up and fill the hole with dirt?
  • Try to make it beautiful?

It Is What It Is--honeysuckle covered stumpTree carvers turn stumps into works of art. Most of us don’t have that skill. My family’s solution: We let honeysuckle cover the stump. Honeysuckle is a weed, but we love its blooms.

Our stump is still a stump, but we chose to make the best of a bad situation.

Before I took the honeysuckle picture, a deer ate most of its blooms. I was disappointed, but it is what it is. I took the picture anyway.

Occasionally, it is what it is becomes an excuse to do nothing.

Although hard, most difficulties are not impossible. We simply don’t want to deal with them.

Let’s use this expression to motivate, not to excuse.

Make the most of life as it is.

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24 NIV).

Thanks to Karen Atwood for the suggestion. First image by Kai from Pixabay.

Do you have an expression you want explained or a thought about this one? If so, please comment below.

How the Sausage Is Made-Harriet Michael book, Glimpses of the SaviorOn Saturday, October 22, I will randomly select the name of one person on my mailing list to receive a free copy of Shirley Crowder and Harriet Michaels’s devotional book, Glimpses of the Savior: 50 Meditations for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. If you are not already on my mailing list, you can sign up here.

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Grass Is Always Greener on the Other Side

Grass Is Always Greener on the Other Side

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Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side--pony eating through fenceThe grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Or so it seems.

That applies to both animals and people. Cows or horses stick their heads through fences to eat grass on the other side. People often try to reach the other side as well.

Many of us believe other people live a better life.

Therefore, we want what we don’t have:

  • Bigger homes
  • Nicer cars
  • Cooler clothes
  • Better-paying jobs
  • More travel
  • Well-behaved children

Life seems perfect for others, while we struggle from day to day. As a result, we get down in the mouth.

The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Most people have problems. No one may see those problems, but they are there. Their problems may differ from ours, but that does not make them any easier.

Happiness comes from within.

We never find happiness by:

  • Comparing our lives with others
  • Getting more than everyone else
  • Eating high on the hog

We find true happiness by:

  • Following God’s plan
  • Learning to be content in good times and bad
  • Valuing people more than things
  • Sharing what we have with those in need

Don’t believe the grass is always greener on the other side. It may be occasionally. Usually it is not.

“Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6 NIV).

Thanks to Shirley Redding Rice for the suggestion. Photo courtesy of Unsplash.

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Make Do

Make Do

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Make DoMy parents and grandparents knew how to make do. So did many of their generation. They survived on what they had. If they had little, they lived on little. If they had more than enough, they saved for the future and shared with others.

They tried to avoid debt. If they didn’t have money, they didn’t buy. They grew their own food, built their own houses, and made their own clothes. They:

  • Discovered new recipes with the food in their kitchens
  • Styled themselves with the clothes in their closets (if they had closets)
  • Learned new ways to live off the land

They threw almost nothing away. Instead, they:

  • Cut buttons off old shirts to reuse
  • Canned and froze food they grew in the summer to eat in the winter
  • Cut up rags to make quilts

By doing the best they could with what they had, they learned to appreciate all they had. Although not rich with money, they were rich in faith and love.

Now in their golden years or gone but not forgotten, they continue to share their wealth with others. Some of those gifts appear in this picture.

  • A quilt made by my mother
  • A quilt rack made by my father
  • A Dutch boy and girl painted by a dear friend
  • Old canning jars that remind me to make do

“Keep 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’” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV).

Do you have a favorite make do story? If so, please comment

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