Hebrews 13:5
Be content with what you have…

It may seem a silly analogy, but it is anything BUT silly to me.

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After almost 22 years of marriage, this ring has not been off of my finger. It was given to me almost 25 years ago near Old Mission Lighthouse on Grand Traverse Bay.

The center diamond fell out and is forever gone.

For a wife…a bride….this is devastating.

It can be replaced, but it will NOT be the same.

It could be made new, but then it would not LOOK the same.

In my life, I have known many things…but a realization about CONTENTMENT with what I HAD has now come flooding over me.

I don’t NEED new.
I don’t WANT an upgrade.

I was perfectly content with what I had and what I had is what I want.

It would have been “easy” to  be swayed by the other sparkling options…a different color setting more fitting for the times than my archaic gold…to jump on an opportunity for change due to the circumstances…

But I was content.
I AM content.

I am thankful to have been given what was given to me in a declaration of love.

I am thankful for the life that sprung out of our commitment of marriage.

Why ask for more when what I had been given was MORE THAN ENOUGH?

I have to make a change- I am forced to because of the loss…the reality is that my ring will not be the same…but I made a choice: I have chosen an option as close to the original that I possibly could.

It will be SIMILAR yet different.

Just like we are now after 22 years of marriage, with a son heading off to the Navy, and the other growing up quickly before our eyes.

It will be different just as my hands look different from the young woman’s hand that first recieved her ring from her beloved.

But… that’s ok.

I’m going to notice the difference and I will appreciate the difference.

Why is that?

Because I know I was content with what I had… therefore I can be thankful for what I have been given next.