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the battle for enough

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I took a break from social media in January. While this is not the first time I have pulled away from the “likes,” the “comments,” and the endless scrolling, this time felt a little different. I spent the inaugural weeks of 2026 pondering the insatiable hunger I have felt for quite some time. “What, exactly, am I hungering for?” The answer to this question was one I could not seem to grasp.

As the slow days of January moved along, peace of mind and spirit resurfaced, and I finally began to recognize the source of the hunger that so eluded me earlier. It was this feeling of dissatisfaction with what is and the constant need to improve everything: my home, my clothes, the way I wear my clothes, my health, all the life hacks, and so forth. According to every influencer on the planet…

My kitchen is outdated,

My floors could use a refresh,

Amazon has all the things to simplify my life (click on the link and they will shoot you the deets),

My skincare routine is not adequately servicing my middle-aged skin,

I need to ditch my microwave because of gamma rays,

And I am wearing my t-shirts and jeans all wrong!

The list is endless.

The overwhelm of discontent was astounding to me. The barrage of messages that nothing of what I have or who I am is good enough created a hunger for living in a perpetual state of “I need to refresh this, renovate that, stop doing this, and start doing that.” I don’t take everything to heart that these influencers throw out there, but it was more the urgency and the push to excess that was burdening me.

What if I can’t change my kitchen? What if these t-shirts and jeans are going to have to suffice right now? What if my current skincare products fit my budget? When beauty becomes a heavy financial burden, then I think we have a problem. Can my house, my clothes, and my skin—as is—be enough for me? Do I really need to give up my microwave?

In the world of social media, there will always be a lamp you can add to a space that you didn’t realize was inadequate until the influencer pointed it out, and there will be clothing hauls until the end of days that neither you nor I really need. Experts on everything will leave our heads spinning with all the toxins we are exposed to in our daily living. Social media never sleeps. It spins in perpetuity, taxing our weary brains and burdening our tired souls.

When we look to the world to determine our enough, we will always come out empty and discontented.

When we take the time to appreciate all the blessings we do have, contentment recalibrates us. We discover that what we have is more than enough—it is everything.

I don’t have a state-of-the-art kitchen. Yet, I can still prepare delicious meals for my family.

Our dining room table and chairs are basic. No frills. But the lingering at the table long after our plates are empty, lost in conversation, makes our dining room table one of the most cherished pieces of furniture in our home.

There are Legos everywhere. We find them under couch cushions, on tabletops, and hiding in the fibers of our rugs. As much as I tidy and try to maintain order in the house, I am in constant battle with Lego. But those tiny pieces of plastic are a reminder that people actually live in this home. It is a refuge for each one of us, and for our son; those Legos reflect his freedom to live and play here.

All the imperfections are what make our home perfect.

And that goes for my skin, my clothes, my health, my effort to balance hyper-vigilance and a laissez-faire attitude about toxins in our food, appliances, clothes, and beyond. Keeping a tight rein on the voices that try to convince me that settling for imperfect is not good enough is a challenge worth the effort. Contentment will never come by way of perfection. But when we can push away from the outside commentators, find gratitude for the life God has provided for us, contentment finds its way back into our souls.

Jesus gave us some really good counsel on striving. In Matthew, chapter six, verse twenty-four, He tells us to: “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

What are all these things he is referring to? They are all the things that you and I need. Everything. Jesus tells us that we do not need to worry about our clothes, our food, our shelter, or whether or not we will have enough. He promises that he will ensure we have all that we need. The craving that controls us is often our flesh demanding these provisions on our terms. And those cravings turn into dissatisfaction when we start comparing our provision to everyone else’s. When we turn away from the world’s definition of enough, we quickly discover that all these things given to us by God are more than enough.

In Philippians, chapter four, verses six and seven, Paul exhorted the church in Philippi to, “Be anxious for nothing, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

We can get wrapped up in anxiety and worry so quickly over things that just don’t matter. We can also fret to oblivion over the things that do. But the promise of peace comes when we stop, pray, submit our requests, our needs, our hopes, and our fears to God. I love this promise because it covers the heart and the mind. It tells me that my thinking parts will rest and my feeling parts will breathe again.

We will forever be in a battle with the world regarding what is enough. The world keeps us bound up—striving for the next best thing, which creates stressed-out people who can’t sleep and can’t find an ending to the madness.

But God’s enough, truly is enough. God’s enough fills us with peace and refreshes our souls. God’s enough may not be the picture we see on our social media feed, but it fosters contentment. It stills the hunger and feeds the spirit. It is a deep, satisfying, joyful-in-all-things contentment. And this kind of peace transcends all understanding.

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