A malcontent heart is the devil’s point of entry into your life.
Malcontent is defined as dissatisfied, complaining or making trouble. I’ve recently started reading “The Anti-Mary Exposed” with a group of women friends. The book, by Carrie Gress, is a Catholic commentary on the state of toxic feminism and the anti-Marian spirit in our culture. As the author so eloquently reveals in the first chapter: Mary is the icon of virginity and motherhood. Both are rejected lifestyles in the radical feminist culture.
It’s easy to be malcontent when you’re on the hard path.
Why does our “enlightened” society oppose virginity and motherhood? When did eroticism and promiscuity take over? Well, our fallen human nature makes us prone to selfishness. Virginity requires surrender of ourselves to the Lord’s perfect design and plan for intimacy. Motherhood calls women to selflessness and unity with Christ on the cross. These are hard paths, but the ones we are made for. But the road to Heaven is straight, narrow, and can be lonely.
Discontent in hardship leads to a malcontent heart.
Especially when I was engaged, I understood how easy it was to be frustrated in the call to chastity. It’s infuriating, sometimes, to answer the constant call to God’s design when we are desperate for the person right in front of us. When we know we just must make it to the wedding day, waiting becomes 100 times harder.
Since being pregnant with my first child, motherhood has been an emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual hardship. It’s difficult to surrender my body to my babies, both to grow them and then to nurture them. Loss of sleep and freedom are not easy to bear. Pain is difficult to endure.
Eroticism and promiscuity do not require sacrifice. They are all about having what you want, who you want, and when you want. You call your own shots and live without restrictions. In short, it’s the life Eve wanted when she chose to eat the forbidden fruit. It is hardwired into our human nature with the effects of Original Sin to crave our own desires.
Allow yourself to be satisfied with God.
We can choose to reject the hardships of life and favor our own desires. But that only leads to brokenness, as it has for all human history (literally). If we reject God’s design and live in discontent, our hearts will become malcontent with our lives. The devil enters here: the malcontent heart. We are easy prey when we allow ourselves to be dissatisfied with our lives just because they are difficult.