Do you ever feel like it might be dangerous to be too happy? Like if you ever got to the point where you were content with your life you'd lose your motivation to keep trying for better things? I mean, to want to improve we have to recognize what we lack, and if we notice what we lack, we clearly see that what we are or what we have isn't enough. Right? When we feel we, or our stuff, aren't enough that motivates us to improve.

If we were ever to get to a place where we were perfectly happy with life as it is, where would we get our motivation to do and be better? I know too many people who think like that. I've been one of those people earlier in my life.

But being content does not equal being complacent, and thinking it does isn't right thinking. That line of thought only leaves us perpetually feeling like we're inadequate or like our life isn't good enough.

How can we love ourselves and our lives and maintain motivation for improvement?

Let's break the question into two parts.

How can we love ourselves and our lives?

One word – GRATITUDE. Of course, this isn't the only way, but it's a fail-proof place to start. We hear a lot about gratitude these days and with good reason. If we can develop the skill – yes, it's a skill – of finding what there is to be grateful for in any situation, we will have joy no matter how dire our circumstance may be. A significant lesson on the power gratitude holds is found in the book The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. It's a true story of a Dutch family during World War ll. Two of the sisters end up in a concentration camp due to their role in helping and hiding Jews. The sisters are faithful Christians, who try to bring God's light into even this darkest of places. One evening as Corrie and her sister, Betsy, are praying together, Betsy wants to thank God for the fleas infesting their barracks. With all privations, cruelty, abuse, near starvation, and devastating loss they have suffered up to this point, the idea of thanking God for the fleas (which to Corrie seem like nothing but filthy insult added to already soul-crushing injury) is too much. She can't do it. When Betsy reminds her the Bible verse says to thank God for all things, Corrie relents and gives thanks for the fleas, not from any real gratitude for the disgusting pests but for the love of her sister. The story goes on to show that they had cause to be grateful for the fleas. The intensity of the infestation was the reason the guards rarely came into their barracks. This, in turn, gave them the privacy needed to secretly read the small section of the Bible Betsy had miraculously been able to smuggle in and to share the hope-filled words of those scriptures with other inmates. More beautiful than that encouraging ending to that small part of their story is understanding that even if Betsy had never learned the fleas were the cause of the guards' absence, the depth of gratitude she lived with still would have allowed her to feel peace in the worse of human conditions. If having a genuinely thankful heart could bring that gift to someone in her seemingly hopeless situation, imagine what it can do for us in our circumstances.

How can we maintain our desire for progress?

So, if we feel gratitude, peace, and joy daily, how do we keep our drive for improvement? Let me introduce you to one of my all-time favorite phrases -

Divine Discontent. What is divine discontent? It's the encouraging voice that calls to us without censure or criticism and tells us we can do better still. It says, "You've come far in life. Now, let's see how much further you can go." It validates us then draws us forward. It is divine. Its source is Divine. It's what enables us to look at our lives and ourselves and be filled with precious satisfaction while acknowledging that we still have work to do. It is the difference between a self-aware "dissatisfaction with self" knowing there's room for improvement and "disdain for self" which fosters the harsh you're-not-good-enough thinking. As Neal A. Maxwell put it, "…when conscience calls to us from the next ridge, it is not solely to scold but also to beckon."

We deserve to live joyful lives. Right now. Despite our weaknesses. Despite our mistakes. Regardless of our long list of imperfections and anything we feel we may lack financially, physically, intellectually, socially, or in any other area. Focusing on those things is not the way to inspire self-improvement.

We can be at peace and trust divine discontent to keep us moving forward.

#Selfimprovement #Joy #divinediscontent