Marsha's Musings: Godliness with Contentment~A Struggle for Me

My Quiet Time:

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (I Timothy 6:6-10 NKJV)

These are hard verses for me to apply to my life.  Just last night, after talking about taxes and all the new taxes we'll get with Obamacare and about how my self-employment efforts actually cost us money at tax time....I threw up my hands and said, "No wonder people would rather be on welfare!  The Government makes it so difficult to try to get ahead!"

But then I read here, that godliness with contentment is great gain and that we brought nothing into this world and will carry nothing out at our death.  Does this mean that I should abandon my goals to help bring in some extra income through self-employment?  

My desire certainly isn't to become rich.  That will never happen.  Our government will see to that!  My desire is simply to bring in enough income that we can afford to hire some help with our property so we aren't looking like an eye sore in the neighborhood all the time.  

Also, I foresee that with Obamacare and other things our government is doing that there is coming a day when my husband's income will not cover all the bills and I'd like to help out. 

 Going out and getting a regular job outside the house isn't an option right now because I must be availabe to travel with my husband whenever his boss calls an out of town meeting because he can't drive safely by himself.

And so, I struggle to apply this scripture to my life right now. We do have what we need in the way of food, clothing & shelter and I am content with those things.  But it doesn't seem like a good testimony to the neighbors if our property is looking bad.  None of us has the time or energy to keep it all up, so the only option I see is either sell out and move or hire outside help and that requires some extra income.

So, Lord, please help me to be content in my circumstances.  I don't think it is wrong to try to better them, but help me to not allow where I am at this moment with things to upset and overwhelm my tranquility and peace.  Help me to not be agitated over these things, but to just have the wisdom I need to make wise decisions regarding some extra income to do what needs to be done around here.