A rich industrialist, disturbed to find a fisherman relaxing and doing nothing by his boat asked, “Why aren’t you out there fishing?” “Because I caught enough fish for today,” was the reply.

“Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?” asked the rich man.

“What would I do with them?”

“You could earn more money and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish.  You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish and make more money.  Soon you’d have a fleet of boats and be rich like me.”

“Then what would I do?” asked the fisherman.

“You could sit down and enjoy life.”

“What do you think I’m doing now?” the fisherman replied.

When my children go to school, what are my instructions to them?  What are my reactions when they come home with their report cards?  Is there a fine line between encouraging and pushing our children and teaching them contentment?  Does this fine line change for each family – with each child?  Does the family that pushes their children the hardest, have children that succeed?  Do families that don’t push their children, have children who do not succeed?  Or is desire to succeed instilled in our children in totally different ways than pushing them toward perfection?  At times I’ve set standards for my children, pushed them to exceed those standards and then set higher standards, pushed and reset the standards.  At some point failure to achieve my standards have resulted in frustration with my children.  My eldest daughter even gave up because I, her grandparents and most of her aunts and uncles expressed disappointment that she didn’t go to university.  It has taken me almost 10 years to rebuild her self-confidence.  Depending on my children, one instinctively pushes harder and another pulls back, refusing to try again.  As parents we need to work hard to know the limits we can push our children.  When we know their limits, we can congratulate them on their successes.  That congratulation many times establishes their threshold of contentment.

I also need to realize that contentment is an acquired attitude toward situations outside of our control.  We can teach our children by word and example how contentment can become a character trait.  They will have a sense of peace if they have confidence in themselves and know that circumstances, no matter how difficult, cannot change who they are.  Bill Gothard said, “Contentment is realizing that God has already provided everything we need for our present happiness.”

None of us are perfect as individuals – nor are our marriages perfect.  As we work together to maintain our love and a strong marriage, our homes will be a good environment for growing and happy children.