Recently as I was evaluating my spending, especially my impulse spending, I discovered that I was missing the character trait called contentment. According to Oxford online dictionary, contentment is a state of "happiness and satisfaction". Bolarinwa Olajire, an online educator and twitter-er, sees "5 attributes of contentment: satisfaction, lack of envy, humility, discipline, and abhorrence of greed and corruption".* Here are some examples of what I have been going through.
In my experience, the lack of satisfaction provokes much of my impulse buying. One example is the number of cell phone holders I have purchased for the car. These online holders all look very attractive and promising but upon arrival don't fit. Recently I saw a TikTok reel that showed a store vegetable bag folded and slipped through the front air vent, then put between the call phone case and the phone. It works great!
Another example is my clothing wardrobe, an old-fashioned cedar closet. I took everything out of it, in preparation to sell it and construct an actual closet in its place. As I was taking pictures of it for marketplace, I realized that I'd never get enough money for it to build a new closet. I evaluated the issue and ended up donating some unused clothing and returning the rest to my cedar closet. When I moved the closet to a different space for cleaning, I became satisfied and content.
This week the joke was on me! While attending a yard sale I fell for an unusual piece of furniture, mostly because of the beauty of the wood and the patina on the drawer handles. When my friend looked up the description I gave her, she found an antique potty chair! I’m not sure if that is what I’ve purchased, but I certainly don’t need it. This was a lack of discipline that caught me.
Although older in years, I’m still learning, remembering my Bible truths
Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 1 Timothy 6:6-8