Coffee Date Link-Up: Happiness in the Now

Hello Readers!

I came across a cool idea in the blogging world, a link-up! Rachel from Oh Simple Thoughts invited her readers to join her in a posting called a Coffee Date Link-Up, which I found through a blogger I know from high school, Megan. Check out Rachel or Megan's posts by clicking the links on their names, they have some great insight! 

The whole concept behind these posts is to share what would be typically shared during a coffee date with a close friend. This might include those talks that seem to go on for hours, where vulnerability isn't a worry and the truth comes out.

Here's where my virtual coffee date begins...

I am taking a break from caffeinated beverages, so I'm sharing while drinking some Vitamin Water and eating some chocolate covered pretzels. Not a traditional coffee date, but I hope you won't mind :) Grab something tasty and take some time to share your coffee date with me, too, via comments or in person!

Here's my latest truth, which is actually a realization as of today. I'm having moments where I struggle to find happiness in the now.

I have times where I know my life is great, where I am completely content and fulfilled in God's present blessings. Yet, as I'm sure some of you can relate, we reside in a culture of wanting more and living for the future. I find my mind wandering to thoughts of where my life will be someday and become drawn to the idea that life later on will be better than college life now.

These are the moments where I just want to skip ahead about twenty steps and have a career, settle down with a husband, have some children, and live in a cute little house in a nice neighborhood. 

Sure, I love life now. I have great friends, a supportive family, and a fairly solid relationship with God. But no matter how much I love life now, I forget to embrace and enact that appreciation sometimes, as ridiculous as that may seem. I become incredibly impatient and find myself rereading verses about trusting in the Lord's timing to try to recommit myself to appreciating the present. It can be a constant struggle to find contentment, especially when the culture around us presses for us to think and plan ahead. 

As a result, I honestly do not have a cure-all or instant fix for the contentment issue. It's complex, plus the potential solutions are easier said than done, as are most challenges presented to the person of faith. I know for a fact that raising up prayers to Him and following His guidance will place me closer to finding joy in the everyday. Taking this step of prayer is definitely a step in the right direction, even if it does not always instantaneously fix our problems. However, the steps after those prayers are where I am realizing more and more that I need to lean on Christ. Thankfully, through God we can do anything, so finding joy and contentment isn't a lost cause. The process will not be easy, but it is possible.

If you relate to any of the thoughts shared through this brief, kinda-sorta-coffee-date, I hope you can find some comfort in the truths below.

Jesus knows the path ahead of us: 

"I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." -Psalm 16:8

Christ has intended for us to find joy in the everyday, not because we understand His plans, but simply because we are blessed with a relationship with Him:

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in his toil-- this is the gift of God." -Ecclesiastes 3:11-13

God does not want us to worry about what we will have in the future because He will take care of us:

"Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?" -Luke 12:23-26

Christ wants us to love, trust, and appreciate our relationship with Him and to seek Him above all earthly things. We can have faith that His timing is perfect and draw close to Him when we become impatient. 

Let Jesus worry about your future for you and join me as I work towards contentment and finding happiness in the now! Christ can bring the ultimate joy. When life isn't perfect, He is still behind the scenes working for good.