You all know how much I love our “teeny-tiny red cabin”.  I’m at such peace when I’m there. God seems to meet me there in a special way.  (Or maybe it’s that I seek Him more. )

I’m perfectly happy with my seven hundred square feet. We added a bedroom three years ago but it’s still really small. So that makes what I’m going to share, embarrassing but I promised to  be honest.

My husband and I were talking a walk along the dirt road around the corner from “teeny-tiny red cabin” and we come upon this big, beautiful home under construction. The owner invited us in to look around once he learned we were neighbors. The inside was everything I could imagine, even unfinished. Our teeny-tiny cabin would fit inside the living room alone. My heart yearned.  I was envious.

Ouch, it hurts to admit that!

But that got me to thinking, why is satisfaction so tenuous?  So fleeting? What makes us perfectly happy with our lives and then “whoosh”, it’s gone when we see something better? How do we go from being discontent with what we genuinely love, to wanting something else? I mean we had to have known there was something bigger and better out there. Isn’t there always?

I’m afraid I can only pose the question. I don’t know the answer. I guess there’s a difference between knowing it and having it right in front of your face. I do know though that dissatisfaction can lead one down some dangerous paths.  It’s easy to go from dissatisfaction in one area in our life and project it into other areas in our life.

If you’re prone to depression, that’s not a good thing.

For myself, I’m careful to keep up an attitude of gratefulness because down deep I am very grateful for everyone and everything in my life.  My envy of the beautiful house was very short-lived. Do I still love it?  Yes. Would I love it if it were mine? Probably.  But does my teeny-tiny red cabin still bring me more contentment than anywhere else on earth?

A resounding, “Yes”!

Am I grateful? Yes.

Was my sudden envy something to be ashamed of? No!

I’m just human, that’s all.

I once read that one of the ways to avoid envy and buying things we don’t need is to look at the things we see in btores as if they were in a museum.

We can’t buy what’s in a museum, beautiful to look at but not to own. That’s what the house around the corner has become for me. Beautiful to look at, but not mine to have. “Teeny-tiny red cabin” is my piece of heaven and nothing changes that. Should someone buy the lot next to us and build something grand, I’ll go through the usual first pangs of envy and then I’ll come back to “teeny-tiny red cabin” and be glad it’s so small because I can clean it in an hour.

So there is that!

Dissatisfaction can result in good outcomes, however, if our dissatisfaction leads us to make necessary changes. We probably make few significant changes in our lives without some initial dissatisfaction. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

I think we all know the difference between dissatisfaction that serves no purpose other than making us envious and dissatisfaction in some areas of our lives that could lead us to constructive change.

What about you?  Have you find yourself dissatisfied with something and then realized your mood had taken a nosedive?  What could you do to feel more satisfied with your life? I think these are questions it is good to pose because we are inevitably going to run into situations where we are envious.

It’s normal but it’s not normal if let it ruin our lives.

And I hope you have a good one. God bless.