problem - Loving Simple Living

Present In Worship, Now In Service

October 19, 2011 in Simple Religion

For this post I wanted to get pictures of our feet representing how we need to focus on where we are at presently. I love these shoes of Lily’s. It was cold and getting dark so she wouldn’t take off her socks like I wanted.

I am excited to write this post. This is something that God has probably been trying to teach me for years, but it is only now that I am really ready to understand and rest in it.

I want to work for God. I want to make a difference in my world. I have spent most of my adult life trying to figure out how I can achieve this. As a family we have looked at lots of mission calls, and lots of ‘mission’ jobs here at home. I read about people helping orphans or doing relief work and I want to be part of it.

My boy will take off his shoes and socks and play in the grass no matter how cold it is outside

For all these years it has never worked out. I am ok with that and assume God has something else we are supposed to do, but I am always looking, always wanting the ‘change’ to ‘true’ service for God. I completely understand that my family and my kids are my ministry, but there is so much pain and hurt in the world I want to try and help.

The problem with always looking for ‘the call’ is that I am living in the future. I am focused on what I could do, or what I might be called to do, and everything I am doing now has just been a time filler till something else.

What I have discovered is that this is dangerous for both my sanity and simplicity, as well as my position and relationship with God.

My husband never takes off his shoes, here he is standing on the slide at the park. Thanks for playing along baby!

A quote I read years ago in Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, Revised and Expandedsaid (something close to)

A common saying in our culture is ‘Don’t just stand there, do something’. God however calls us to ‘Don’t just do something, stand there and focus on me’

We try so hard to work for God that we don’t have a chance to know God. And, if we don’t know Him, how can we really know what He wants us to do?

We learn about God, and we grow to want to serve Him, but all to often, we jump from one to the other without getting to know Him in the middle. Once we fill our life with lots of ‘good-God-work’ we don’t have the time to ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ Ps 46:10

Here are my feet with my home-done toes. I love red! Usually looks better from a distance… up close they look pretty messy.

So What Does It All Mean?

Our society has us living in the future… when I get past this busy time at work…. after the kids get potty trained…. after I get at least one good night sleep…. when I am finally out of debt…., and I was taking the same problem to my spiritual life.

We have to live in the present. Live in the present with our kids, our finances, our life, and our God. It is a simple law of biology and physics, there is only mental energy and time for the present.

God wants my worship and service today, maybe just this hour or this minute. It isn’t that we shouldn’t wish to make a difference for Him, it is that we need to focus on what He wants us to do now.

I found this poem yesterday from SAINT AUGUSTINE’S PRAYER BOOK: A BOOK OF DEVOTION FOR MEMBERS OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH:

Just For Today

Lord, for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray;
Keep me, my God, from stain and sin,
Just for today.

Let me both diligently work and duly pray.
Let me be kind in word and deed,
Just for today.

Let me be slow to do my will, prompt to obey;
Help me sacrifice myself,
Just for today

And if today my tide of life should ebb away;
Give me thy Sacraments divine,
Sweet Lord, today.

So for tomorrow and its need I do not pray,
But keep me, guide me, love me, Lord,
Just for today.

Today is all I need to worry about. With Gods strength and guidance I can do, and be, what He wants me to be ‘just for today.’

Tags: adult life, Experiencing, experiencing god, family, helping orphans, henry t blackaby, living, living in the future, need, Prayer, problem, relationship, relationship with god, relief, Sacraments, Service, Simple, simplicity, time, time filler, true service, world, yesterday
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The Bad Side of Bulk

September 21, 2011 in Minimalist Tips

This is a crazy post for me to write. A year ago, this post would have sounded very different so, I guess, this area really shows how my thinking has changed. I have learned that simple living and simple homemaking often doesn’t including buying in bulk.

I used to love bulk. I have never been a hoarder of stuff after I have used it (like kids cloths or craft projects) but I was a big hoarder on bulk items. Before we moved to our apartment this spring I had our house packed with all kinds of things I found in bulk or on sale. We had a year or more supply of stuff from toiletries, to food, to kids cloths (these purchased several years in advance at garage sales). My thriftiness had me buying everything in advance when I could find it. I always shopped through all the clearance sections and found great deals.

While downsizing this spring I ran into the problem of trying to figure out what to do with our years supply of so many things. I found myself selling lots of never touched toiletries and boxes of laundry soap, and donating lots of cloths that they kids wouldn’t have grown into for years. Even now, lots of stuff that we have in our apartment now is left over bulk that I kept that we will hopefully use up in the next year.

What I am coming to realize is that bulk really isn’t cheaper for two main reasons:

First, I am not sure I will really need it. Often I have ended up with more cloths purchased ahead of time than my kids even need for a size and season. I have gotten lots of shampoo that I then decide I don’t like as well as I thought I did. We get sick of a food and there is still lots left in the cupboard.

Second, I am paying for temperature controlled storage for my bulk. It might be cheaper to buy TP for a year at a time on sale, but then I need to have a house big enough to have a place to store it. Most of my basement and bathroom cupboards were full of different bulk products. Now I don’t have the space to keep all these products, but I am also paying much less living expenses and utilities. Having a chest freezer was nice in the house and it was always full, but I am not sure that it saved what we paid for in electricity to run it. Honestly, the stuff purchased in bulk was cheaper, but was it really cheap enough to make up for the costs.

Beyond these there is the hassle of having to sort through stuff and keep it organized.

Probably most people aren’t near as crazy as me. My excuse was that hoarding for the future was much smarter than hoarding other useless items. It has just been a revelation, or a change in the way I am thinking, to realize that this really wasn’t saving me money and that living simply, buying only a few things in bulk or ahead is really, surprisingly cheaper…. and way easier.

If we need to have it all, than couponing or shopping all over town might make it cheaper… but maybe we don’t need it all.

Less hassle, more time. Less stuff, more money. Simple life, more freedom.

Tags: Â Â Simple, apartment, bathroom, bathroom cupboards, Blog, boxes, buying in bulk, clearance, couponing, craft, craft projects, cupboard, Food, freedom, freezer, garage sales, great deals, hoarder, hoarderÂ, homemaking, house, kids cloths, laundry soap, living, many things, Money, need, problem, revelation, shampoo, Simple, simple life, size, storage, stuff, supply, thriftiness, thriftinessÂ, toiletries
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Making a Big Difference…. Simply.

September 20, 2011 in Simple Compassion

Welcome to my simple living blog! Thanks for reading. Take a look around and feel free to comment or e-mail me.

I want to share a simple way that my family has been involved in making a powerful difference. For the last 3ish years we have sponserd 2 children through World Vision.

First off I have a huge burden for those in 3rd world countries. There are evils and poverty in our country, but here there are programs everywhere for food and medical. Clean water and education are amazingly easy to come by no matter who you are or where you are. In other countries it isn’t this way. Lack of clean water, food and basic medical attention kill millions of people. The education that could help pull them out of the cycle is often something they can’t get, don’t have time to get, or are too weak to get. We did nothing to deserve where we were born and they did nothing to deserve where they were born. In the world, we are all family and we should do all we can to help each other.

What is neat about world vision is the connection. We picked 2 children, matching ages and genders with our own as close as we could and have been able to write back and forth and learn about how they are benefiting from our support. We know that these children will grow up to get the education that can give lasting help to their community.

Let me introduce you to our kids:

Juster(below)-Juster is a 7-year-old girl in Malawi. She seems shy, but likes to draw us pictures and is doing well in school. Her aunt writes us letters because she isn’t old enough to write yet. As she does more school I am looking forward to seeing letters from her. Last Christmas we sent extra money and she was able to get several things including a metal storage container to keep the bugs from destroying her blankets, cloths and a goat. We send $35 for Juster every month and a world vision worker checks on her everyday because she is high risk. She is a Hope Child.

Phochland(seen at the top of the post)-Phochland is a little 4-year-old boy with lots of older siblings living in northeast India. Still to old to do school or write he has done a few simple drawings or colorings for us and we send him lots of stickers. He loves playing ball and is very healthy. Last Christmas, with some extra money we sent, world vision purchased a bike for his dad. We send $30 a month for Phochland and the world vision worker checks on him every week.

Sponsor a Child

These are my additional kids. It has been a great experience for our whole family. Lily and Ian both write letters and pick out stickers and treats to send. We would love to visit them someday.

In this world we can’t fix all the problems, and it seems overwhelming when we hear all the terrible struggles people face. I love that I can do something for someone. These kids, their families and their communities benefit from a small amount that is automatically withdrawn out of my account each month.

Will you help too? Will you find a kid to help? It is super easy, pick and kid and set up automatic withdrawal and they take it from there. If you have time, when you remember, you can send a note, but your money is working even when you don’t think about it.

My reason for writing this article is two-fold. First, I think all kids deserve a chance no matter where they are born, and I believe World Vision does a great job of offering sustainable help to communities.

Second, if I can convince 5 of you to sign up by the end of Sep to sponsor a child I get entered in a drawing for a trip to Peru. So, if you sign up, send me an e-mail with your name and your sponsored childs ID number :) I would also love to hear how it is going as you sponsor your child.

This is such a great opportunity. As much as I would love to fly over to some of these countries and try to help, I can’t figure out a good way now. What my small contribution does every month provides the practical, educated, lasting help that I can’t physically give. It is a blessing to be involved, simple to , and a bargain!

Will you sponsor? Sponsor Now!

Tags: 3rd world countries, bargain, blessing, Blog, clean water, cloths, contribution, daughter, difference, education, extra money, family, Food, Health, help, high risk, Hope, hope child, Juster, kid, living, malawi, medical attention, Money, northeast India, Phochland, PhochlandÂ, poverty, problem, reading, Simple, sponserd, Sponsor, support, time, water food, Website, world, world vision
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