Contentment, words of wisdom

For I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content, - Philippians 4:11

 Lately it has been very trying at work and I have struggled with muttering and complaining about how rushed, overloaded and just plain disgusted I get with some of my bosses who don't seem to understand that there is not enough hours in the day to complete all that is expected of us to get done.   Now,having said that,this morning I picked up my devotional book and I read the following from Spurgeon

"These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. weeds grow easily. Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. We do not need to sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth. And so we do not need to teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated. In order to have wheat, we must plow and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener's care. Now, contentment is one      of the flowers of heaven,  and if we would have it, it must be cultivated;it will not grow in us by nature. It is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even  then  we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace that God   has sown in us. Paul says, "I have learned.... to be content,"as much as to say he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to discover that great truth. No doubt  he sometimes thought he had learned, and then broke down. And when at  last he had attained to it and could say, " I have  learned in whatsoever  situation I am to be content," he was an old, gray-headed man, upon the borders of the grave---a poor prisoner shut up in Nero's dungeon at Rome. We might well be willing to endure Paul's infirmities and share the cold dungeon with him, if we also might by some means attain to his good stature. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented with learning or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be exercised naturally but a science to be acquired gradually. We know this from experience. Christians, hush that murmur, even though it is natural, and continue as a diligent pupil in the College of Contentment."

I needed to read that, and found myself checking my attitude of contentment several times today.