Simplicity

I have found myself more and more frustrated with the world lately.  When I get online and see the headlines each day, everything that the world is focusing on seems so pointless to me.  Money...greed...fame...which celebrity is doing what...current fashions...what so-and-so wore to whichever party....BLAH.  None of it matters.  It is all so empty and meaningless.  Vanity, emptiness, meaningless.  Yes, I sound like I'm writing Ecclesiastes.  But it's true!

More than ever, I'm wanting to simplify my life and be content with basics.  I want a simple life, as apart from the world as possible.  I don't mean isolation....just simplicity.  Back to basics.  God, home, husband, children, cooking, cleaning, church, schooling my kids, farm animals, garden.  This has always been me anyway, but it's become an even stronger pull lately.  I don't have money, but if I did I would want to continue to be as frugal as possible and give to others.  This is the model of the early church:

Acts 4:32, 34-35: "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need."

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I've really been getting frustrated with how much money is spent on entertainment, especially by Christians.  There are a lot of needy families out there (we are one of them).  Is it right for Christians to spend hundreds of dollars on dinners out, vacations, movies, hobbies, etc., when they know there are people who desperately need money and just don't have it?  People that sometimes can't even buy a gallon of milk for their children?  Reading the verse above, I don't think it's okay.

All of that to say...if and when our family ever has money, I want to live as frugally as possible and give to others in need.

Simplicity...it's what I want.  It reminds me of the lyrics to an old country song that I loved:

A simple life is the life for me
Man and wife and a family
The Lord up above knows that I'm trying
To lead a simple life in a difficult time

God bless you, my sisters!


"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."~Hebrews 12:1