Spending.
Thankfully I have a glimpse of what Jen Hatmaker went through as she did the "7" challenge. The youth and I did shopping as one of our four choices. (I'll have to write and tell yall all about it; the results stunned me, plus I added to it this next four weeks!) Shopping wasn't easy nor was it as hard as others. Seven places to spend money in a Seven days. Easy peasy for teenagers, not so easy for an adult who got paid and has errands to run. Yep, that's the week I got shopping. The week where the fridge was looking rather empty, the bills were due, and Avengers came out on Blu-ray/dvd. Fortunately, the evil Target in our area is a SUPERTarget so I could grocery shop there!
Since participating in the shopping week, I haven't honestly thought about where our money was going. It typically goes to bills, tithe, Speedway gas station, grocery store (Kroger, Trader Joe's, Meijer, Sam's Club, or Super Target), a restaurant or two, Redbox, Compassion International, and etc. There's always something random to pay for like a half marathon, College Retreat, oil Change among the etc items. But how often does a quick run into the store mean buying more than we need? How many times has a "going to the store for milk and bread" turn into several bags of food? How many times do we treat ourselves to new shoes, pedicures, latest video games, newest bluray/dvd, new outfit, new purse without breaking the budget but forgetting about the DOZENS of others we already own? What about the countless numbers of faces that could use our financial blessing to receive clean drinking water, to afford school, to eat a single meal per day, to get malaria prevention? Stuff that costs equal amount to everything we "splurge" for on ourselves.
$30 pedicure+ starbucks = Child Sponsorship through Compassion International
$30 extra groceries"running to the store" = Masese people being fed for a week
$30 New Bluray & Redboxes/Month = Freedom for Trafficked peoples
$3 for two 44oz of soda = Power of Three
*These are all international causes helping people in Jesus' Name!
Our money is not our own. We are given stewardship over it and we must release ourselves from the power of thinking it is all ours and hoarding our wealth. We need to spend wiser, spend thriftier, and spend on items where people aren't being abused to make the products we're consuming.
Thankfully I have a glimpse of what Jen Hatmaker went through as she did the "7" challenge. The youth and I did shopping as one of our four choices. (I'll have to write and tell yall all about it; the results stunned me, plus I added to it this next four weeks!) Shopping wasn't easy nor was it as hard as others. Seven places to spend money in a Seven days. Easy peasy for teenagers, not so easy for an adult who got paid and has errands to run. Yep, that's the week I got shopping. The week where the fridge was looking rather empty, the bills were due, and Avengers came out on Blu-ray/dvd. Fortunately, the evil Target in our area is a SUPERTarget so I could grocery shop there!
Since participating in the shopping week, I haven't honestly thought about where our money was going. It typically goes to bills, tithe, Speedway gas station, grocery store (Kroger, Trader Joe's, Meijer, Sam's Club, or Super Target), a restaurant or two, Redbox, Compassion International, and etc. There's always something random to pay for like a half marathon, College Retreat, oil Change among the etc items. But how often does a quick run into the store mean buying more than we need? How many times has a "going to the store for milk and bread" turn into several bags of food? How many times do we treat ourselves to new shoes, pedicures, latest video games, newest bluray/dvd, new outfit, new purse without breaking the budget but forgetting about the DOZENS of others we already own? What about the countless numbers of faces that could use our financial blessing to receive clean drinking water, to afford school, to eat a single meal per day, to get malaria prevention? Stuff that costs equal amount to everything we "splurge" for on ourselves.
$30 pedicure+ starbucks = Child Sponsorship through Compassion International
$30 extra groceries"running to the store" = Masese people being fed for a week
$30 New Bluray & Redboxes/Month = Freedom for Trafficked peoples
$3 for two 44oz of soda = Power of Three
*These are all international causes helping people in Jesus' Name!
Our money is not our own. We are given stewardship over it and we must release ourselves from the power of thinking it is all ours and hoarding our wealth. We need to spend wiser, spend thriftier, and spend on items where people aren't being abused to make the products we're consuming.
Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours.
Give me Your eyes for just one minute.
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