Sufficient Self's Bible Study Group

[bambi]

Vanity and pride are best of friends and when you make friends with either one you no longer give credit to the the one who provides for us. The Lord provides all. My Vet told me a few months ago that my wonderful friend and lap dog had cancer and after treating him it came back.She wanted to try more and different treatment and after praying I understood that God loaned him to me ,he did not belong to me this helped me understand that our loved ones and all things are a gift from him and they are only on loan. I hope that I returned my sweet dog in the way that the Lord wanted me to and I am so grateful he loaned him to me at a time that I needed him.I guess where I am going with this is the Lord gives to us what we or someone else needs at that time.

 

[savingdogs]

Thank you for sharing that Bambi. That is an example I can really relate to.

 

[BookWorm77]

thats a really good example

 

[bambi]

Vanity can go in so many directions in our life. I am so happy to find this thread and I am looking forward to hearing everyones views. It helps to look at word that our Father provides and learn from others experience.

 

[Rebbetzin]

What I am getting from this passage is... That the having of many things, be it long life, riches, wisdom, etc. If one doesn't experience/appreciate the true goodness and enjoyment of what this life can offer, it would be better if that pereon had never been born.

One thing my husband has been stressing the past few years is to LIVE... Do the things on your bucket list. Don't wait to live!

These ARE the "good old days" we will look back on.

 

[Beekissed]

The one thing I notice, just in my small workplace, is that my boss has aplenty and is never satisfied nor seems to take joy in anything at all. She is always striving to make more money or to attain a higher position in life. She rarely smiles and almost never laughs.

There is also another co-worker that has not quite so much but more than enough to get by but has little real joy in life either...always seems stressed and angry about many things.

Then there is one with whom I work who makes very little and her life is full of one catastrophe after another....she also seems to have much stress and strife, very little true joy in her life.

It would seem that it is all for nothing if you cannot learn to be content with whatever God gives you in this life. Rich or poor really means nothing in regards to having a good life.

I know a lady who is a paraplegic, is very poor and is mostly bed bound. But she has a phone mounted on the wall over her bed...with that phone she offers comfort to all her neighbors, shut-ins, the elderly and sick. She provides a network for those in need and she goes out of her way to do for others....all from a very small and dark room in a little old house in the country. She is always ready with a smile and a good word for her family and friends...of which she has made many.

Her children~all boys~care for her tenderly and lovingly, cleaning her and applying dressings to her sores. What life she has been given she is enjoying to the fullest and doesn't count any day as being wasted. Stress? What's that? She doesn't seem to have any!

 

[Rebbetzin]

My husband has a saying he uses many times...

"If you are not content with what you have...
You will never be content with what you think you want."

 

[miss_thenorth]

Rebbetzin, true, true!!

Sorry I haven't been active lately. My computer time has been sporadic, but I should be able to get on more in a bit. I am only on chapter 5 right now. Maybe by the end of today.

 

[Denim Deb]

I farther behind than that. Between the problems I was having w/my laptop and then getting a really nasty chest cold, I wasn't on much. I'm just now getting caught up.

 

[BarredBuff]

Im going to set out the rest of Ecclesiastes, Im not liking the book that much......