Continuing the theme of my recent post A Change of Heart, God seems to be continuing His work by asking me to change how I think about stuff.
Like actual stuff.
In that post I focused mainly on my clothing stuff but I feel a total overhaul from the inside out on how I view possessions altogether.
The word minimalism is thrown around a lot but in my case it feels like more than that.
I don't have an ideal that I'm striving for.
No certain number of items or a clear picture in my head.
I'm not pining away just hoping someone, someday will call me a minimalist.
Instead I am simply being compelled to weed out what I can and stop bringing in more to make room for greater things.
Some of those wonderful "things": Christ and my soul, my husband and marriage, my kids, and our ministry both at church and in the foster care system.
Adam and I are trying to get control of our money rather than being controlled by our impulses.
There's no good reason for us to live pay check to pay check so by God's wisdom, we are trying to change that.
The sad fact is that various debts are keeping us from following His ultimate lead.
We both feel a mutual and intense call to keep our door and hearts open to more kids.
But now we must first obey Him in getting out of debt so that we can make room and stability for more kids.....maybe quite a few if God says so.
Of course a bigger house and financial stability are never prerequisites to God doing whatever He wants to do..... but in our case, He's asking us to first obey Him in this dry, hard work of being self controlled and disciplined before we can walk into a more exciting adventure.
Our first practical step was creating a budget.
We've done it for a bit now and are tweaking it as we go, as we get to know our needs better.
Personally, I've been overhauling my desire for new somethings.
Anything.
Even if it's only new to me.
I LOVE bargain hunting especially at Goodwill or yardsales.
It seems harmless at the time but then I $20 and $30 us to death.
God is making me see that I don't always need those cheap thrills to enjoy myself or look good or make our house better.
I've got all I need!
And WAY too much more.
I'm trying to cut way way way back on my personal spending.
I'm trying to not only be happy with what I have, but less of what I have.
Some books that I've devoured lately on the subject.....
The first two are available as audio books on Hoopla.
The last I was able to find at our library.
They have been so motivating to me to look at what seems to be an endless hunger for more.
It's an endless hunger if I don't first ask God to fill me with gratitude, contentment, and generosity.
The physical outcome has been a complete weeding out of every space in our house of stuff that was a cheap thrill and now serves no purpose.
I've really never been much of a clutter bug.
I'm good at clearing out but the clearing out has always been because we are constantly bringing in.
Not this time.
God is doing a new thing and I'm ready to check myself before I wreck myself once again.
I'm taking full advantage of the fact that our neighborhood is having its annual yard sale this weekend.
I'll have my own which has been crazy motivating to let go of things.
One little step, one little prayer at a time, God is continuing to change me from the inside out dealing with heart clutter I didn't even know was there.
Like actual stuff.
In that post I focused mainly on my clothing stuff but I feel a total overhaul from the inside out on how I view possessions altogether.
The word minimalism is thrown around a lot but in my case it feels like more than that.
I don't have an ideal that I'm striving for.
No certain number of items or a clear picture in my head.
I'm not pining away just hoping someone, someday will call me a minimalist.
Instead I am simply being compelled to weed out what I can and stop bringing in more to make room for greater things.
Some of those wonderful "things": Christ and my soul, my husband and marriage, my kids, and our ministry both at church and in the foster care system.
Adam and I are trying to get control of our money rather than being controlled by our impulses.
There's no good reason for us to live pay check to pay check so by God's wisdom, we are trying to change that.
The sad fact is that various debts are keeping us from following His ultimate lead.
We both feel a mutual and intense call to keep our door and hearts open to more kids.
But now we must first obey Him in getting out of debt so that we can make room and stability for more kids.....maybe quite a few if God says so.
Of course a bigger house and financial stability are never prerequisites to God doing whatever He wants to do..... but in our case, He's asking us to first obey Him in this dry, hard work of being self controlled and disciplined before we can walk into a more exciting adventure.
Our first practical step was creating a budget.
We've done it for a bit now and are tweaking it as we go, as we get to know our needs better.
Personally, I've been overhauling my desire for new somethings.
Anything.
Even if it's only new to me.
I LOVE bargain hunting especially at Goodwill or yardsales.
It seems harmless at the time but then I $20 and $30 us to death.
God is making me see that I don't always need those cheap thrills to enjoy myself or look good or make our house better.
I've got all I need!
And WAY too much more.
I'm trying to cut way way way back on my personal spending.
I'm trying to not only be happy with what I have, but less of what I have.
Some books that I've devoured lately on the subject.....
The last I was able to find at our library.
They have been so motivating to me to look at what seems to be an endless hunger for more.
It's an endless hunger if I don't first ask God to fill me with gratitude, contentment, and generosity.
The physical outcome has been a complete weeding out of every space in our house of stuff that was a cheap thrill and now serves no purpose.
I've really never been much of a clutter bug.
I'm good at clearing out but the clearing out has always been because we are constantly bringing in.
Not this time.
God is doing a new thing and I'm ready to check myself before I wreck myself once again.
I'm taking full advantage of the fact that our neighborhood is having its annual yard sale this weekend.
I'll have my own which has been crazy motivating to let go of things.
One little step, one little prayer at a time, God is continuing to change me from the inside out dealing with heart clutter I didn't even know was there.
No comments:
Post a Comment