Living with Less

I have been pondering the issues of my last post and the Lord has revealed a lot to me over the past serval days.

Side note....I forgot to tell you in the last post that Ladd sugguests going and buying a used Bible or use a Bible that you already have that you can mark in. She said that she uses a different maker for each person in her family and uses sticky notes to write notes about certain situations to pray for with that particular scripture.

As I have been praying for Parker and his heart attitude, the Lord has revealed to me some areas that need attention. The Lord confirmed this by leading me to a book called Having Less so Your Family Can Have More by Mark and Jill Savage.






Description:
Our culture believes that bigger is better, but Jill and Mark Savage believe that being satisfied with less materially can allow you to give your family more-emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.

What Christianity.com gleamed from the book:
Make constructive sacrifices, but avoid destructive ones. Making certain types of sacrifices can benefit your family by freeing up more time for them. These include: comfort, sleep, hobbies, entertainment or recreational activities, and career pursuits. However, be sure not to ever sacrifice your relationship with God, your marriage, or your identity, because doing so would harm your family.

Okay, so where I am I going with this?

Well.....I have been convicted that "Living with Less" doesn't always mean downsizing your home but it is a heart attitude. It is a way of life in every decision you make for your family. The thing that Paul and I have come to realize is that we have fed into the "Having more" attitude and not teaching our kids to be content. When your child has a Wii, Game cube, every movie known to man, every toy ever created, their own room with a TV and access to it whenever, able to go to the pantry and get whatever they want whenever they want to get the food that they demanded at the grocery store.....something is wrong.

I hate to admit that this is where we are at!

We have made some major changes in the White household. I don't like to call them "rules" but rather "boundaries" we have set to point our children to Christ and less on the World.

If we sale our house and move into a smaller one (which we are waiting on the Lord's provision on that as a for sale sign sits in our yard) yet our attitues of "having" have not changed, then what have we gained? Sometimes the most important decisions are not the big ones but the smaller daily ones.

I will write more about this as God reveals. But for now I challenge you to see where your heart is. Whether single, married, married with kiddos. Are you following into the footsteps of the world or God?

Am I saying that having "things" is bad? Absolutely not!

Here is what Christianity.com wrote on the practical application of Mark and Jill Savage's book:

Our culture constantly says that you need more in your life: a bigger house, a newer car, better clothes, more activities. But none of that reflects what God says is most important: healthy relationships. Pursuing what truly matters requires living with less - not more - so you'll be free to grow closer to God and other people.

Pursue simplicity. Realize that living simply isn't about deprivation; instead, it's about determining what's truly important and discarding the rest from your life. Pursue inward simplicity by examining your heart often and keeping it fully focused on God. Pursue outward simplicity by expressing your values through your lifestyle decisions, such as: buying items for their usefulness rather than for their status, rejecting anything that's addictive to you, making a habit of giving things away, refusing to believe that you need the newest and the best, learning to enjoy things without owning them, developing a deeper appreciation for creation, resisting "buy now, pay later" schemes, speaking plainly and honestly, rejecting anything that oppresses others, and turning away from anything that distracts you from seeking God's kingdom first in life.

This is still all very new and fresh and the Lord is still dealing with me on these very issues. I just pray that I would be silent enough to hear His voice and then follow.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Not perfect, but being perfected in Him,

~Kerry