We’re all familiar with the the character skill (that’s what I’m gonna call it) called contentment. It’s easy to write about, to read about it and to hear it during a sermon or motivational speech. But putting it to practice… Not so much.

It’s hard to be happy and satisfied when everything in your life is literally falling apart on someone posts selfies of their last vacation or night outs with friends. Let me let you in on a not so secret secret “everything is not as it seems”

It’s easy to get carried away and think everyone else is doing fine and you’re the only one whose so stressed out. To think everyone is having it better and not want to bother anyone with your troubles. But that isn’t true. I’ll give you an example from real life.

I have a friend… We’ll call her Matilda. We used to talk all the time before she started going to a university in a different state. The university I’m in is on strike and theres so much pressure on me to catch up on my reading.

Matilda is in a private university. To me she seemed really happy. A bit stressed out from school work (who isn’t?) but she was always posting pics of her friends at school and talking about campus life.

One day, while we were chatting on WhatsApp, she said something and I kinda cracked. I told her about how stressful school was for me, how I didn’t think I could cope and how my parents were literally breathing down my neck. They meant well but were only making me more anxious.

She admitted things hadn’t really been all that rosy for her either. She just hadn’t said anything. I’ll spare you the details and say that basically she was having issues with her relationships on campus. Some the friendships she was in felt “forced” She also felt really anxious about her performance academically and didn’t want to let anyone down.

Now I’m not calling anybody fake. In reality the people who seem to be doing better aren’t faking it they just don’t want to show that part of their lives. They don’t want to be seen as attention seekers or as weak individuals. They don’t want to bother anyone with their problems.

So what I want you to remember is that just because someone out there is living their best life doesn’t mean yours is terrible. There’s always something to be grateful for, I mean you’re reading this blog post, that’s a reason if I ever saw one (insert proud face emoji)

And even if things completely suck right now it just means that God’s working on your character. He’s trying to make you a better person by letting you go through things that require you to turn to Him.

And if all this doesn’t make you feel better, just remember that nothing is permanent. Eventually things will change and you’ll be glad you kept going.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave any opinions or additions in the comments.