Contentment ~ soul business

Winter barreled south and Texans are piling on the layers-wool sweaters, coats, scarves, knitted hats, mittens, and  really, I think we look quite smart.

Last night  I slipped between the flannel sheets with a shiver. My husband reminded me that our body heat eventually warms the sheets; he's been telling me that for over 40 years but I still yelp with the initial icy shock.

In The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs writes that true contentment is soul business-  for example, to be content as a result of some external circumstance is akin to warming a man's clothes by the fire, merely temporarily and externally warm.

But true contentment radiates from a soul that trusts God . . .like a healthy woman  puts on her clothes on a cold morning and at first she shivers but after she wears her clothes  for awhile, they are warm, warm from the natural heat of her body!

 So, I told my husband all of that as we waited for the sheets to warm up.
 "I don't think I'm explaining it quite clearly," I lamented.
"Not at all, I understand perfectly," he assured me.

Then, as always, I felt the sheets warm. . .