Thursday, August 09, 2007

Satisfaction

I am back to voyaging with vocabulary. When I was in high school, we had to do so much vocabulary memorization. I am never sorry that I had to do so. It has paid off in my life. The years we were homeschooling our son, I gave him plenty of vocabulary work, and lots of Greek and Latin vocab. to memorize.

This all comes from having grown up in a home where my Dad, having come from Bolivia to the U.S. at the age of 19, learned the English language - and learned it well. And God help his kids if they didn't speak the English language properly! There was never any lazy questions allowed in our home. If you ever asked,"Dad, what does this word mean?" he would always say "Go get the dictionary and look it up." He knew more vocabulary words than the average man, but he wouldn't let us ride on his coat tails. He wanted us to learn the meaning of words. He wanted us to put our efforts into knowing the power of each word we spoke.

Words are powerful. Certain words, clearly understood, turn on light bulbs in our head. Certain words , lately, are really sticking in my head. It's like God is saying "GET THIS!"

The word for today is satisfaction. I love "s" words- they're simply scintillating and smashing!(Some words are just fun to speak, period.)

But this word- satisfaction- seems to get Christians up in arms. It seems like a selfish word or a sinful word. People immediately think of sexual connotation or of selfish endeavors in getting satisfaction. But I love this word- and God does too!

"A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, and the recompense of a man's hands will be rendered to him." Prov.12:14


Wiktionary describes the meaning of satisfaction:

satisfaction

  1. fulfillment of a need or desire.
  2. the pleasure obtained by such fulfillment.
  3. the source of such gratification.
  4. reparation for an injury or loss.
  5. vindication for a wrong suffered.
Solomon, the king noted for his wisdom, seemed to think satisfaction was important. He said this:

18 Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. 19 Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. 20 He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. Eccl. 5:18-20

Your heritage and your inheritance is satisfaction. Satisfaction is something you can get- it comes with the sweat of your brow, the work of your hands, the words from your lips. Speak well, speak kindly, and you will be satisfied you did. Write, create, draw or express yourself in an artistic way, and you'll be glad you did. Satisfaction is being occupied with joy. Satisfaction is knowing God has vindicated you from a life of shame or guilt- and has deemed you cleansed, forgiven, and loved.

There is nothing noble in laboring and creating only to be unsatisfied with the results. I, for one, intend to look like the cat who ate the canary, going around with a smile of delight on my lips.
When people ask me why I look so happy, I'm going to answer with the shocking truth-
"Cause I'm satisfied."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hello !

Very interesting blog.

It has been a plesure to read you.

I wish you the best.

Reno