Monday, August 11, 2014

Blog With Perfect Timing...Give Me Less not More

I just read this blog: http://momastery.com/blog/2014/08/11/give-liberty-give-debt/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=give-liberty-give-debt


It was titled Give Me Gratitude or Give me Debt.

I couldn't have read it at a more perfect time.

We have started a new stricter budget in our household. We deposit a certain amount every 2 weeks for food and entertainment and well...life. I won't divulge how much to avoid any judgment.

Anyway, today I was in a negative frame of mind. I wasn't being a twit all day or anything like that, but we are low on the cash flow since it is the last few days before we replenish the expense account. I found myself having "huffy" thoughts. Thoughts like I haven't even put money in W's lunch account. Thoughts like we are out of laundry detergent, milk, and the pantry seems low on groceries.

Then I read this blog about how grateful the author Glennon was for the necessities in life-in her outdated kitchen regardless that the style or models may be considered out of date by readers.

A couple of things happened at that very moment. Her blog with pics of her kitchen really shined a light so bright on my thinking you could have heard the bulb pop. But during that process I glanced up from my iPad and looked at a picture I have hanging on my wall.


I wasn't looking at the magnolia picture or the refurbished frame I brought back to life the year I was married. I was looking at the reflection in the picture. The reflection was of the huge willow and other gorgeous trees in my back yard. And they seemed to be waving at me wildly to get my attention and saying, "HEY! LOOK AT ME!" I turned around and peered out my wall of windows and saw it had begun raining, and I hadn't even noticed. I put down my technology to notice that it was beautiful. The rain was slanted to the right and the trees were waving at me through the window wildly. The sky was a shadowy blue gray. It. Was. Beautiful.

I went into the kitchen and begun organizing the pantry. It is usually stuffed so full I can't even see what's in the back. Today It looked sparse so it was the perfect time to arrange and reorganize it. I thought of Glennon's blog that I read today Give Me Gratitude or Give Me Debt.

I was ashamed. Ashamed that as I looked around as Glennon did in her blog I too had too much to be grateful for! So so very lucky. Instead of making that what we don't have, what we need list that gets stuck to the fridge I realized what we HAVE. I began making a list of what I have at this very moment and it put me to shame.

I started dinner with what I could find which I will get back to in a moment and had to go outside to write in my journal. When you are a writer there are moments that things come and you must write them down. Things I don't want to forget. Things I want to reread in a week, month, year, decade later and remember the lesson the aha moment. I began listing what I had. By now the rain stopped and the wind had dried the patio. The wind was blowing even harder and appeared an even more impressive storm was about to blow in. That's the kind of weather I like to be outside for (although for a moment I thought is a tornado coming? Write faster!)

Here's my list

What I DO HAVE:

~a gorgeous stormy sky

~a spaceous 2 story home

~an adorable havanese pet dog

~my kids attended a Christian private school today in clean new uniforms where they are free to learn about and worship God freely

~ground beef

~salmon

~cheese

~bread

~boxes and boxes of pasta

~bags of rice, beans, peas

~fresh sweet potatoes

~lima beans

~broccoli

~clean water

~stainless steel appliances that WORK

~beds for my children

~inside bathrooms

~more clothes that can fit in 4 closets among us all

~a working kitchen

~a husband working right now at this very moment to support us

~air conditioning and heat

~cable t.v.

~joy in our hearts

~the Duggars recorded!

~blankets

~towels, that match and are color coordinated among 3 bathrooms

~a little 10 yr old by my side watching and adoring my every move

~an energetic 7 year old that has dozens of video games and multiple game systems

~computers

~ipads

At this point I realized the list could literally go on and on and on and I had something in the oven!

I write this not because I brag. Heavens no! I write it because I realize that I:



Am a spoiled, rotten, brat of a housewife. And in all honesty I strive everyday to be less spoiled. Less rotten. And less of a brat.

I strive to be more aware of real world issues. Real life.

When this:


appears for even a moment to be a sparse pantry, I have to readjust my thinking. I have to remind myself we Americans are richer than our wildest dreams compared to the world. As my pastor Pete Wilson says, "We are just bad at being Rich!" But we are rich.

So by the time dinner came around I felt overjoyed to sit and eat sloppy joes, sea salt and cinnamon sweet potato fries, and lima beans with my kids-on a paper plate!

My attitude bled over to my children's. They were so happy. So grateful. So pleasant at dinner you would have thought I'd made them a feast.



To top it off we had fresh cold cantaloup for dessert.


I am so so so thankful for my friend Erin Grant sharing this blog on Facebook today and as Erin has such a way with words she posted, "I love her perspectacles!"


Isn't that so true! Our perspective is how we see the world but not necessarily how the world really is.

And as I notice the sad death of a talented funny actor tonight that some would look at as having it "all". And while I read how he may have died, I remind myself, I don't want it "all". It doesn't bring happiness.

I want to be unappologetically the plastic surgeon's wife that eats Sloppy Joe's on paper plates that is so very happy to just see the rain. To just be happy sitting with my kids. To only need what I already have, even though it is so hard not to revert to the spoiled rotten American brat. To always try to be less than what I am and more like Christ. To be happy with less not more.

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