I love my grandchildren. I do. I greatly enjoy our times together. I delight in watching their individual characters develop. They're mischievous in the way children should be, with just the right blending of wit and imagination. We laugh a lot when we're together. However, after two weeks with the three oldest ones this summer (fourteen, nine, and seven), I discovered one very unlovable thing: no matter what I gave them, where I took them, or how hard I tried to cater to their every whim, it was never enough.

Surely advertising gets some credit for this underlying root of dissatisfaction. Wall Street blasts commercials at us everywhere we go until we believe that our lives will only be complete after buying the latest toothpaste concoction, the new improved detergent, or the more fuel-efficient car. Our phones become obsolete in 6 months or less, and we need a new computer every other year. Can we live another day without an iPOD or a Wii? On a trip to Best Buy with the grandchildren, I wandered through a world of foreign contraptions, calling to me in technological languages that might as well be ancient Greek. I didn’t know what most of them were for, but according to my grandchildren, they are things I need. How can we be happy without such important things?

I blame parents, too, the “me-centered” generation. Where did they get that attitude of ingratitude, I wonder? Did we teach our children that they were the center of the universe? Is this where our well-intentioned efforts to infuse self-esteem into their personalities got us? They scarcely have time for such old-fashioned things as service to others and to God. Hurry, hurry. Work longer and harder. Strangers will raise their children and they won't have relationships with their own parents, but that can't be helped. They need that bigger house, speedboat, or newfangled device.

But does acquiring more create the satisfaction and contentment we believe it will? Looking through grown-up eyes, we see it doesn't. Rich people are no happier than we are. We know this immediately after acquiring that latest and best “whatever.” It's never quite as wonderful as we supposed it would be when we only desired it.

The Ten Commandments addresses this issue. "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Exodus 20:17. Wait a minute, you say. How did we get from wanting something all the way to the sin of coveting? Ah, you see how subtle sin is. Anytime we think our happiness depends on acquiring something we don't have, anytime we look around us and our hearts fester with desire for something God has not chosen to provide, isn't that coveting? In God's all-knowing wisdom, He saw how discontentment robs our joy, so He commanded us not to covet.

Take coveting material possessions one step further to the basic premises that rule our choices. As we believe, so we will live. I confess that I've said in my heart, I can't possibly be joyful with the uncertainty of this terrible economy hanging over my head. I just need to get past this sick spell, or lose weight, or land that new job, and then I will be happy. Gas prices are rising again. I’m dealing with an empty nest, or an impossible personality clash in my family or in my work. My husband won’t do what I want him to. I don't like what my church is doing or not doing. If only my life could be stable and orderly, then I could be happy. As soon as… If only… In my head, I know happiness doesn’t come from circumstances. Even a perfect life could never produce contentment. But does my day to day living reflect that knowledge? Or is discontentment driving my words and actions?

Hear the word of the Lord: Psalm 90:14. "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love that we may sing for joy all our days." God loves us. He loved us before the creation of the world and chose us for His own. He loved us enough to let Jesus die on the cross so we could forever be united with Him. His heart is so full of love for us, that He can’t love us one bit more. But to claim His joy, we must choose happiness in light of His amazing love. Only God's unfailing love brings true contentment to our hearts. Only God’s love. That is enough. Whatever is happening around us, whatever we need or think we need, we must make bathing in the love of God part of every morning’s ritual. If we let His love so fill us that doubts, fears for the future, and wrong attitudes get pushed out of our hearts, then He promises we will have joy all our days. God always keeps His promises. Satisfaction guaranteed.