Ahh, sleep

Yesterday, my wife and I dropped off our two kids (3 1/2 and 10 months) with Grandpa and Grandma. We're going on a retreat with other pastors and wives from our area, which should be pretty fun. We had kind of forgotten what was like to be childless. I don't remember the last time I slept all the way through the night without being woken up at 5:00 by small children jumping into our bed. And we get FOUR NIGHTS of sleep!!!

On the flip side, we really love our kids a lot . Leaving them for five days, while fun, is also kind of sad. Jaron says so many hilarious things every day. And Lily's huge smile melts our hearts every time. Life will certainly be less eventful without them.

This brings to my mind the idea of contentment. Why is it that when we have the kids, we're desperately looking forward to an opportunity to be without them? And when we don't have the kids, why can't we wait to have them back? What would it be like to be content in all things, no matter what the life situation? What would it be like to simply live life today for today, instead of constantly looking ahead to something different or better? It seems that the lack of contentment is at the root of so much of the sadness in our world. The Sunday School answer says that Jesus will make you content, but that doesn't seem to work for most people most of the time. What are we missing? Why can't we experience satisfaction and contentment in all things?