Recent studies published in The Journal of Marriage and Family concluded that the feeling of dissatisfaction was a significant cause of stress, and depression in today's society.

In other words, people rise to high levels of achievement, have lovely homes and healthy families but cannot seem to find contentment even when they possess all these things.

This situation reminds me of the Apostle Paul who experienced great success as a chosen Apostle along with much suffering at the hands of the Jews and Roman officials but managed to write the following in

Phil.4:11,"Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in."

*It was a different time and a different world and yet Paul addressed a common social issue still present with us today - dissatisfaction with life.

So, in the spirit of the Apostle, I offer 3 Simple Steps to Contentment for those who feel dissatisfied with their lives today:

Step #1 - START GIVING THANKS

In other words, review what you do have and give thanks for that, instead of focusing on what you don't have.

*What an insult to God to continually be dissatisfied with what He has provided you.

Step #2- STOP looking for what you want and start paying more attention to what others may need.

*You see, caring for the needs of others is much more satisfying than simply taking care of ourselves.

Step #3 - REMEMBER WHERE YOU BELONG
Discontentment usually involves disappointment with what we have or where we are in this world, but we are not of this world, we belong to the Kingdom of God!

Understand that the best status we can aspire to in this broken world is a state of contentment because it doesn't, it cannot get any better here.

However, when Jesus returns, our status will be described using words like joyful, blissful, eternal - a state of being worlds apart from mere contentment.

*Now, we are learning to be content with a cup that is half-full, but soon we will go past contentment and finally experience fulfillment because our cup will be eternally full through Jesus Christ.

Think, practice and pray on these things in order to be at peace with where you're at now, and have hope for where you will be in just a little while.