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My dear friends, when Diane asked me to write about “hope,” I found this letter I wrote to my daughter several years ago. I was going through her spiritual inheritance, and I came to this…contentment. You might think ‘contentment’ and ‘hope’ are two completely different things, but they are not. Hope thrives when planted in the soil of contentment. Enjoy this very personal letter to my daughter (when she was living in an abusive marriage) and be encouraged by the example of my husband’s mother.
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Dear Mikel,
  God allows pain, discontent, frustration, and other uncomfortable things to serve as red flags along life’s path. Because He wants to give you success, one of the ways He guides you in the direction of fulfilling your dreams is to wave these red flags in front of you as warnings that you’ve taken a wrong turn. I’ve learned to pay close attention to the unsettled feeling in my “gut.” When you’re on God’s path, the one which leads to the realization of your own dreams, He has a way of providing a deep sense of peace, comfort, and contentment to settle you on the inside, no matter what’s going on around you. 
[su_spacer] I’ve met one person who has this figured out. And fortunately for you—she’s part of your spiritual inheritance!
[su_spacer] I’ll never forget visiting grandmother on a Wednesday night in November when she was in the hospital with an unstable heartbeat. Dad and I walked in, but she didn’t recognize us at first. Then Dad asked her about the monitors that were hooked up to her; she smiled and said, “Oh, those are hooked up to me, so the people out there in the hallway will know if I expire in the night.”
[su_spacer] Dad asked, “Mom, do you plan to expire tonight?”
[su_spacer] She quickly responded, her smile steady, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” 
[su_spacer] Later in our visit, she looked at me, still smiling as she said, “The Lord has been good to me.”
[su_spacer] I wish you could’ve been there because me telling it just doesn’t do it justice. Her face was filled with peace, contentment, and a sense of having accomplished everything she was put here to do. She had no regrets; she harbored no bitterness, and she was seemingly eager to embrace whatever God had for her next.
[su_spacer] That would have been inspirational enough if nothing of any major consequence had ever happened to her—she was simply ready to go on to heaven at the end of a long and happy life. But Mikel! You know as well as I do that grandmother has not had an easy life.
[su_spacer] When she was in Brazil, granddad was out somewhere in the bush, sharing Jesus with people when she went into labor with your uncle James. Grandmother tells of how she had to get herself to the hospital and try to communicate with the Portuguese staff as she had him on her own!
[su_spacer] You know she and granddad had to leave the Phillippines because David and James got all mixed up with the wrong crowd in high school. They came back home to try to help straighten those boys out. And you know they never really got straightened out.
[su_spacer] When several years later, James—only 38 years old–died in a motorcycle accident. Grandmother passed his broken bike on her way to teach Bible study to the women in prison. Then David, who’s suffered his entire adult life from alcoholism, was divorced from his first wife. To this day, Granddad continues to help Linda (the first wife) out financially. Then grandmother watched as David’s 2nd wife Carolyn died slowly from lung disease. And if that weren’t enough, just a year or so after that, she grieved with the rest of us when her cherished 1st grandson and David’s only son died at 20 years old in a car accident.
[su_spacer] I’m sure grandmother (and granddad) suffered other difficult things too—things that I might not even know about. But, as grandmother lay in that bed on that Wednesday night in November, not knowing whether she would live or die, she simply stated, “Oh, God has been good to me!”
[su_spacer] Grandmother took hold with both hands; her spiritual inheritance was called contentment. She’s learned the secret of what makes it all well. This same gift is yours for the taking. Your grandmother smiles and offers it to both of us! If we’re smart enough to receive it, we can extend it to Misty, too.
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Your Spiritual Inheritance:[su_spacer]
  1. Love
  2. Purpose
  3. A Good Name
  4. Support
  5. Success
[su_spacer] Contentment: An internal satisfaction that does not demand changes in external circumstances.
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Psalm 90:14  Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
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Psalm 103:2-5  Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
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Psalm 104:28  When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.
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Psalm 145:16  You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
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Psalm 145:18-19  The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them.
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Philippians 4:11-13  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. 
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Philippians 4:19  And my God will meet all our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
[su_spacer] Unfortunately, this is another one of those blessings that get unwrapped, refined, polished, and put to good use when life doesn’t go our way. My prayer is that I’ll continue to embrace it for myself—that you will too, and that Misty will receive it for herself when she’s old enough to decide. For I know, there will come a time when her life will most certainly deliver its fair share of hurt to her, too, no matter how hard we try to protect her from them.
[su_spacer]I love you, Mom
[su_spacer] My mother-in-law did “expire” in October of 2014, just after my daughter Mikel gave birth to her 2nd daughter, River. Mikel, Misty, and River live with my husband and me, and we are having the time of our lives as we do life together with our eyes fixed on Jesus.[su_spacer]

Leighann McCoy, Pastors’ Wife, Thomas Station Church, Speaker, Author, Prayer Warrior, Prayer Clinic
Leighann McCoy is the founder of the Prayer Clinic ministry. She’s written 17 books and taught thousands of people to pray. Leighann serves as the prayer minister at Thompson Station Church in Thompson Station, TN, where her husband, Tom, is the senior pastor. You can connect with Leighann at www.leighannmccoy.com, and you can learn more about the Prayer Clinic at https://prayer.clinic/

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