{"id":2097,"date":"2012-03-26T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/?p=2097"},"modified":"2012-03-13T09:29:54","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T13:29:54","slug":"the-secret-to-being-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/03\/the-secret-to-being-content.html","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to Being Content"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2012\/03\/Letting-Go-of-Worry.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2098\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2012\/03\/Letting-Go-of-Worry.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Self-sufficiency was considered a virtue in Greek culture. The Greek word for content, <em>autarkes<\/em>, means to be self-sufficient or independent. However, the Bible offers a different view of this concept than the Stoic philosophers of biblical days. The Stoics believed that contentment was reached by being resigned to one&#8217;s situation. It was a term that referred to total indifference, a sort of ancient version of WHATEVER!<\/p>\n<p>The Apostle Paul&#8217;s discussion of contentment in Philippians 4 had nothing to do with Stoic indifference. His contentment was rooted in his faith. The deep joy he felt while in jail came through his relationship with God and His goodness in all that happened. Paul&#8217;s union in Christ, God in Him and with Him, was the secret to being content.<\/p>\n<p>Paul could rejoice in trials because of the fruit they bore and the strength and courage that resulted, not because he had some twisted need to suffer. His words to us regarding being content in any situation are backed up by his own difficult and glorious experiences in life. God strengthened him to persevere during difficult and thrive during abundance. He came to understand that contentment was learned through his relationship with God, not through his circumstances. Paul never complained that he was a victim of circumstances. He did not worry because he knew God would supply all his needs. That is why he tells us that he could be content with much or little&#8211;a striking contrast to our present day thinking.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Except from <em>Letting Go of Worry<\/em>, Harvest House, 2011. <a href=\"http:\/\/store.beliefnet.com\/amazon_store\/item\/0736930582\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to order.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Self-sufficiency was considered a virtue in Greek culture. The Greek word for content, autarkes, means to be self-sufficient or independent. However, the Bible offers a different view of this concept than the Stoic philosophers of biblical days. The Stoics believed that contentment was reached by being resigned to one&#8217;s situation. It was a term that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[913,914,917,916],"tags":[343,1075,1073,251,1074,1077,53,1072,1076,134,344],"class_list":["post-2097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-couple-relationships","category-family-relationships-2","category-friend-relationships","category-god-relationship","tag-contentment","tag-faith-in-god","tag-joy","tag-peace","tag-rejoice-in-difficulty","tag-relationship-with-god","tag-relationships","tag-self-sufficiency","tag-trials","tag-worry","tag-worry-free"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Secret to Being Content<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/03\/the-secret-to-being-content.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Secret to Being Content\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Self-sufficiency was considered a virtue in Greek culture. The Greek word for content, autarkes, means to be self-sufficient or independent. However, the Bible offers a different view of this concept than the Stoic philosophers of biblical days. The Stoics believed that contentment was reached by being resigned to one&#8217;s situation. It was a term that&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/03\/the-secret-to-being-content.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-26T12:00:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-13T13:29:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2012\/03\/Letting-Go-of-Worry.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Secret to Being Content","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2012\/03\/the-secret-to-being-content.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Secret to Being Content","og_description":"Self-sufficiency was considered a virtue in Greek culture. The Greek word for content, autarkes, means to be self-sufficient or independent. However, the Bible offers a different view of this concept than the Stoic philosophers of biblical days. The Stoics believed that contentment was reached by being resigned to one&#8217;s situation. 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Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2097"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2097\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}