On being content

On being content

April 5, 2001

'Smatter of Fact
By Katharhynn Heidelberg

"Be thou content..."

For too long, some have regarded this admonishment as a rule for wimps. In reality, it is a powerful message we would do well to heed. You see, "Be thou content" doesn’t mean "give up." It means "quit whining."

Many children cherish the dream of becoming professional athletes. It’s not hard to see why. Children and adults alike adore big-name sports stars, and — let’s be honest here — envy their large bank accounts.

The reality of course is that few children will ever become NBA or NFL players. A colleague’s daughter is a tiger on the basketball court, but she knows she will never be tall enough to be a draft pick. Her genes work against her in that respect...but she still plays basketball.

She doesn’t sulk around the court, envying her taller friends, or complain that life has shorted her. She doesn’t sit in front of the television, dreaming about becoming a sports hero, but doing nothing about it. She is content with who she is, and focuses on her strengths.

Too often, the rest of us simply fantasize about what we cannot have and then complain when we don’t get it. We’ve missed the point.

Many women (and some men) dream of having a flawless body. It’s not hard to see why. Supermodels and actresses are beautiful, and like famous athletes, command quite a salary.

To paraphrase a poster, however, there are "20 million women who don’t look like supermodels and only eight who do." Women are bright enough to understand what this means, but often fail to incorporate that understanding into their lives. Commercials, books, movies and even real-life "coffee talks" (and columns!) show how women go on and on about their skin, their hair, their clothes and their weight.

Rarely do we see a woman content merely to be healthy and emotionally stable.

Recently, I have been very angry and frustrated at my body’s stubbornness to shed excess fat. After all, I’d been getting up at 5 nearly every morning to work out for an hour or two before work. When that failed, I added a lunch-time workout to my regimen. When, after four years of committed aerobic exercise, I didn’t get the results I thought I deserved, I lost my temper and began sleeping in more often than not.

I too, had missed the point, but the tragedy of a young woman from Dove Creek drew my attention to it. Krista Martin has had both her body and her life turn out far differently than what an athletic girl like herself could logically expect.

At age 21, Krista fell victim to a disease that left her unable to control most of her muscles. The active, vibrant young woman is now an invalid and her medical mystery has bankrupted her family. But she is still vibrant, still courageous and still using what she can.

Thanks to her example, I have stopped complaining about "all that time on the treadmill," and have begun thanking God that I can use the treadmill at a high setting for an hour at a time. My vanity taught me to seek a body I am genetically incapable of possessing. The heroic Krista Martin taught me to be content with a functioning one.

Being content doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to improve our lot in life. It means we should recognize and celebrate what life has already given us.