God Meets Us Where We're At

Is your soul stirred by abject poverty, yet you don't know where to begin?  Have you done nothing, for fear of doing the wrong thing?

You are not alone!

And there is hope for you.  God always takes us right where we're at, moving us forward with love and faithfulness.  He doesn't expect you to sell all your possessions and give everything to the poor.  Really.  And right now, depending on your circumstances, he may not want you to commit to a monthly gift at all.

How we handle our money speaks volumes about our heart, our Christian walk, our usefulness to God.  To impact our world's for Christ--even in our own homes--we need to understand Biblical money management.

Where are you right now?  What level of self-control do you currently possess?  Do you live within your means?  Are you carrying a balance on any credit cards?  Did you buy more house than you could chew?  Or more car?  Do you regularly--weekly or monthly--purchase new material goods--things that are wants, not needs? Are you giving ten percent to your local church?  Or even five percent?  Are you building a savings--five percent of your monthly income, perhaps?

If your answer to some of these is wanting, wherein lies the problem?  Are you spending to fill up a void in your life?  To deal with stress?  To boost your confidence or your image?  Is God a companion of yours, truly?  Do you sing to him, read His word, pray to him, praise his Holy name?  Do you get quiet and really listen to Him?  Do you give Him a chance to fill your void?

Have you evaluated your friends, remembering that bad company corrupts good character?  Limit your time with materialists.  They have nothing to offer you.  Materialism is sin.  Plain and simple.  Do a 180 degree turn away from your sin, starting with the company you keep.

If your spouse is a materialist, pray for your spouse, but still be responsible for lining your own behavior up with Scripture.  So your husband overspends.  Couldn't you still focus on reducing your grocery bill, your clothing bill, your misc. expenses bill?  Focus on what you can do, while praying for your spouse.

Tips for getting out of the starting gate:

1.  Keep a giving journal and focus your heart on one or two things at a time.  All the while, pray about how God will use you and your family in the area of giving.

2.  Copy giving Scriptures down and memorize them.

3.  Reduce your spending in two areas and journal about your weekly progress.

4.  Identify spending triggers and avoid them.  Read a book when you feel the urge to spend.  Pray.  Take a hike or a walk.  Make something in the kitchen or in the craft room.  Play a board game with the kids.  Read pictures books or a novel to the kids.  Write in a journal.  Garden.  Paint.

5.  Make a list of simple giving projects you can implement, such as working to stock local food pantries.

6.  Educate yourself about abject poverty.

7.  Start a gratitude list in your giving journal.

8. Research the ways you can make a bigger difference, once your finances are healthy. Pray about sharing your research with your husband.  He will have noticed your heart change by now, and be intrigued.

9.  Find an accountability partner.  If you must shop for something, bring her along to keep you on track.

10.  Devise a plan for teaching your children about money management.  If they have any money, give them one jar for tithing (10%), one for savings (10%), and a third for discretionary spending.   Have them memorize giving Scriptures.  Teach them about abject poverty.

You can do this!  Get out of that starting gate today!

"He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses." Proverbs 28:27

"Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."  Luke17:33

we must decrease

Did you catch Ann's post today?  Here is an excerpt that really struck me:

"My last night in Guatemala, Shaun who had guided us through Guatemala with Compassion, had said it across the table to us, and this is what I remember, the Gordian Knot I can’t quite figure out how to slice: “The world, your community.. even your family — they are going to try to push you back to the middle. North America feels pretty comfortable in the middle. Balance, everyone says. I don’t know what Jesus is going to say to you.. How He might direct your life now…  just don’t assume He wants you to live in the middle. Be open to the possibility …. Of something radically different.” "


I was also struck by this:


"I’m half-hearted brave through the check-out. We buy two pair of leotards. I have no idea if we should. The girls do need them. It’s October. This is Canada. But thirty one days ago I saw kids who had no shoes, living in a dump in Guatemala. Do we really need leotards? Do I really need a new dress, a sweater for travelling to Relevant next week? Do I really need a haircut? Mascara? Every time I open my wallet, I twist, conflicted." 


I could feel Ann's conflict.  She is speaking at a blog conference next week and obviously wants to look nice.  She is agoraphobic and sometimes fights intense fear when leaving her home.  Perhaps a new outfit would boost her confidence.  And yet, surely she already has something in her closet that will do just fine?  


All of us have a similar inner battle, whether it be clothes, furnishings, our mode of transportation, activities, even certain foods.  Do we really need it, considering that some children go days without food in some countries?  


Usually the answer is a clear no (although I'm glad she got her girls the winter tights).


So, if a clear no, why are so many of us comfortable in the middle? 


Partly, it's mob mentality.  Everyone is doing it.   


To be set apart for Christ, to live radically, to end abject poverty--we have to lower ourselves....As Jesus did when he became flesh....as Jesus did when he washed the disciples' feet....As Jesus did when he was beaten, taunted, tortured....for us.  


We have to live humbly.   Live below the mob.  Let the mob whisper about us.  Wear the older outfit and risk looking as though we belong to the lower class.  Drive the older car.  Buy the cheaper meat.  Buy the cheaper mascara...the cheaper haircut.   


We have to decrease, so He can increase.


Ann is right.  "God gives the world enough of what it needs.  He just doesn't distribute it."


Dear Lord, I thank you for your generous gifts.  And I pray for North America--for those of us in the middle.  Help us to live radically, bravely, sacrificially.  Help us to be humble distributors of your wealth--knowing that we deserve none of it, own none of it.  May we live knowing that our value comes from you, and not from our lifestyle. May we be set apart for your purposes.  In your name I pray, Amen.

midday anti-insanity post

Time for a midday anti-insanity post.  My sweet, curious, fabulous toddler has her busy hands into something different about every thirty seconds today--leaving destruction in her wake.  Will she engage in Lego play with her industrious sister for five minutes--before plowing down the safety (not) gate and coming after Momma?

My gratitude list, because gratitude is the answer to every bad day, every dilemma, every impossible circumstance:

- the oatmeal cookie bars now baking in the oven (yes, we bake a lot--I have to keep the food budget reasonable, so only pretzels are purchased in the way of snacks)

- the tasty crockpot navy bean soup we had for lunch

- the beautiful fall leaves raining down on us, coloring our lawn brilliant

- clean drinking water

- my washer and dryer, to take care of the muddy clothes generated by rainy day play

- the Bible, to point out the high road, the road less traveled, the only road worth traveling

- this post, on a day I wonder if I've married the wrong person, and this post preceding it

- and this post, on a day I know I need to be a blessing to my husband, but don't have the will

- for the headaches that won't quit--for they remind me that I don't have cancer and my eyes, my ears and all my limbs work

- for the love of four precious children and one faithful husband

Through each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.
Psalm 42:8

their favorites

The children's ride to AWANA--our children's director--was on vacation this week, so they had to miss tonight's class.  Anticipating deep disappointment, I planned an upbeat day--dancing, painting, lots of stories, and their all-time favorite activity.

What, pray tell, is their favorite activity?

Mixing up a batch of sugar cookie dough, rolling it out, using cookie cutters, baking it, and finally, the decorating.  Just the thought, or mention, of this activity gives them jolly ants in their pants.  They run around like wild hooligans, cheering.

The mess, ladies.  The mess!  We do it about four times a year, which I know is shameful, considering all the other batches of cookies we manage to whip out no problem.  I. just. can't. stand. the. mess.  It entails wiping up everything and sweeping after the dough part, followed by wiping up everything and sweeping after the decorating part.  Followed by managing the entire load of dirty dishes generated.  There is usually a meal in between, so two clean ups it is.

Drop cookies are my friend.

Is four times a year enough?  I tell myself they wouldn't enjoy it nearly so much if it occurred more often.

 Mary had us reading The Gingerbread Man several times this week, so we decided to use the gingerbread man cookie cutter.  Here we have some colored frosting, to give him a "fancy suit of clothes".  The boys, at 6 and 8, can manage this whole operation themselves, except for creaming the butter and sugar, which Momma still does--at least until we get an electric mixer

 Paul is proud of his painting.  He mostly experimented with color mixing.

 Swing dance party.

 Every child instinctively knows how to boogie--and loves it.  Ever notice that?  By the way, this Momma can still boogie with the best of 'em!  

 Here is my sweet Mary, showing off her favorite fall book--Too Many Pumpkins, by Linda White.  I love, love, love this story!  Rebecca Estelle, the main character, just hates pumpkins, because as a child money was scarce and her family once went a month with only pumpkins to eat.  After that month, things improved, and she vowed never to eat, or think of, pumpkins again.  But one fall day, many decades later, the pumpkin truck dropped one in her yard, and it smashed into smithereens.  I won't tell the rest of the story, so as not to spoil it.  But oh, it is wonderful.  If you haven't read it, get it on your next library visit.

 A few weeks ago we went to an apple farm, during their apple harvest festival.  We enjoyed a nice hayride and picked out a couple pumpkins.  Not this large, however.  :)

I leave you with a funny literary passage.  Who can guess the name of the book?

"I just don't get it." she grouched.  "How could anyone forget the Easter Bunny? The Easter Bunny brings candy right to your door."


Lennie did a frown at her.  "He doesn't bring candy to my door, Lucille." he said.  "The Easter Bunny is a different religion than me.  I'm Jewish."


Shirley nodded.  "I'm Jewish, too, Lucille," she said.  "I've never even been to an Easter-egg hunt before.  What do you wear to something like that, anyway?"


Lucille stood up and fluffed herself.  "Well--since the Easter Bunny and I are the same religion--I'm going to wear a fancy Easter dress, Shirley," she said.


Shirley thought for a minute.  Then she nodded.  "Hmm.  Then I guess I will wear a fancy Jewish dress," she said.


Lennie's eyes lighted up.  "Really, Shirley?  You mean we have our own clothing line?" he asked.  He smiled.  "Then I think I will wear some fancy Jewish pants," he said.


My friend named Herbert tapped on his chin.  "Let's see.  Since I'm Pressed-byterian, I guess I should wear Pressed-byterian pants," he said.  


He turned and looked at me.  "Pressed-byterian means we iron out our wrinkles, I think," he said.


Just then, Sheldon slapped the table with his hand.  "Hey, I know!  I will wear a fancy turban!  A fancy turban is religious clothes, right?"  He asked.  "I love fancy turbans!"


So, did you guess the book?  Or the book series?

Answer:  Junie B., First Grader,  Dumb Bunny, by Barbara Park

Barbara Park could write stand up in her next career, no?

giving thanks

I'm thankful for....

...four sweaty heads to shampoo (having Indian summer here) The boys usually shampoo their own, but I wanted to love on all four sweet heads tonight.

...four squeaky clean bodies with smiling faces

...a baby who never tires of naming body parts and learning new names, like chin, shoulder, elbow, eyelash, eyebrow

...my toddler asking to nurse after she gets a boo boo or falls

...93% lean ground turkey for its $1.98 a pound price.  We eat it most nights, with a baked chicken and also pancakes breaking up the week.  I'm pretty sure one can never run out of things to do with ground turkey and left over chicken.  Just tonight, I jotted down three new ground turkey recipes.  Turkey and chicken don't have much iron, so I try to find ways to add beans or pasta.  Frugal recipes seem to rely on a lot of canned soups as add ins.  I don't buy canned soups and prefer not to use canned broth either.  I guess I'm learning to enjoy the challenge of eating well on a budget.

...books, books, and more books--I can't take my children to see the world, but we can sure read about faraway places, and imagine.

...My Paul telling me how he imagines in his mind what story settings look like.  Visual learners turn everything into a picture in their minds.  I remember him telling me all about Heidi's loft bedroom, with the hay-filled bed and the starry sky window

...My Mary's enthusiasm for Geo Trac train track formations.  She works diligently, making different shaped tracks every day.  The boys started designing their own around age 3 also.  Trains are wonderful toys!  

...talking with my children about the Lord, and about how to live for Him, day in and day out.  Both boys expressed sorrow recently that men have to leave their families so much to go to work.  My boys want to be with their kids--a lot!  Yeah for them!  I was reading about the Duggars' emphasis on fathers working at home, whenever possible, so they can be around to lead their families.  So today, we discussed possibilities for family businesses--things the boys can do with their families, in or around the home.  Peter is interested in farming, and Paul is still thinking about it.  I'm proud of their family-oriented spirits!

...my dishwasher

...my washer and dryer

...that I have clothes to fold--right now.  A houseful of precious people to love means nightly folding.  Praise God for the precious people!  Okay.  For the folding too.

...for four seasons, all of which have unique beauty

...for playdates

...for homeschooling

...for an ample backyard

...for my oven and crockpot

...for oatmeal

...for sticky little hands grabbing my aged face, and looking at it with all the joy in the world.

...Goodnight, friends!  I'm thankful for you, too!

"To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever."


Psalm 30:12