In the seventh chapter of Disciplines of a Godly Woman, Barbara Hughes discusses the importance of cultivating the discipline of contentment. She cites one dictionary definition of contentment as, “desiring no more than one has; satisfied.” While it’s perfectly natural to have desires and motivations, we must never forget that “the unchangeable factors in our lives ought to teach us that true contentment can only come from God-and that we must seek it in Him alone.”

She shares this little poem written by an eighteenth-century woman known only as, “A Poor Methodist Woman”. It is evident that, whoever this woman was, “got” what Paul meant when he said, “I have learned to be content in whatever the circumstances.” (Philippians 4:11).

My prayer is that God produce in me the plain, sweet, and contented spirit that this woman so elegantly displays.

I do not know
when I have had happier times
in my soul
than when I have been sitting at work,
with nothing before me
but a candle and a white cloth,
and hearing no sound
but that of my own breath;
with God in my soul
and heaven in my eye.
I rejoice in being exactly what I am
-a creature capable of loving God,
and who, as long as God lives,
must be happy.
I get up
and look a while out the window.
I gaze at the moon and stars,
the work of an Almighty Hand.
I think of the grandeur of the universe
and then sit down
and think myself
one of the happiest
beings in it.