How Much Do We Really Need

It's only a month and a half after Christmas yet everytime I drive past a store it's packed whether it is 8 in the morning or 8 at night the parking lots are full. Of course I am guilty of being at the stores, between two kids and needing Diapers and Formula probably about 85% of the time I'm there because I need to be....but of course like everyone else I rarely get out of the store with JUST what I went planning to buy - the cart is always at least half full.

Then I drive back home to a house that is filled with one of almost anything and everything you can think of. I walk through the house, the garage, my closet and there are things in there that I didn't remember I had and haven't touched in I don't know how long. I'm sure there have been times I have re-bought things and didn't even realize it. This has all been weighing really heavily on me lately as I move slowly but surely from my old self to my new self in Christ. I hear stories about people right here in my own town that desperately need help and would feel blessed to have even a quarter of what we have. Then of course there are the third world countries that truly have nothing yet here I sit amongst papers, books, electronics, toys and clothes. I've had enough and it's time to make a change.

From here on our I'm scaling back - we always sell the things that the kids outgrow at the consignment sales to buy clothes for them for the next season that they grow into. So getting rid of things isn't a problem, it's the amount of things that there are to get rid of that is. I'm going to refrain from just throwing things into the cart because they are cute or because someday they might like it and start buying what we actually NEED and not what we WANT. Two words there here in the US we find to be interchangeable yet they are so different. A Need is food, clothing, shelter, transportation and well wants are just about everything else you can think of. Making this change will not only lift this big weight off of my shoulders but it will also help fatten my wallet and allow us as a family to use that money along with the things we no longer have a need for in our home for more important things like helping those that don't have basic things to fulfill their NEEDS!

So with all of this on my mind I was REALLY excited to get the weekly email from our church - Hope Community Church - it showed that the sermon series starting this weekend is entitled Rich People Syndrome. It is funny how God will lay something on your heart and then an answer comes right behind it - you just have to pay attention to see it. So needless to say this is going to be a great weekend and I can't wait to hear what our Pastor has to say.

I also found this video while browsing through the Right Now website - take a look at it, I would be very surprised if it didn't get you thinking as well

Until next time

-Samantha-