Memoirs & Momentos: Thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for... Josh, Isaac, Eli, and Olivia, my beautiful mama, my sister, my little nephews, my Nanny, my step-dad, my step-sister Monica, all my sweet in-laws. I'm thankful for memories of my grandfathers, my Bubba, my Daddy, and my Aunt Jane. I am so thankful for many close friends that brighten my life. These are my 30's and I'm in the prime of my life. I've got sweet cuddly babies to kiss their cheeks off, and a darling teen who just a few minutes ago gave me a bear hug and kissed my cheek. Can it really get any better? So often I let everything else get in the way of what's really important. The mundane things of trying to get everyone dressed and out the door on time, a hot casserole, being on time (which I never am). I was so frazzled when we left the house on Thanksgiving that I was getting snappy with everyone in the car, and Josh said, "Is this really something important to get upset over?" I took a breather and said "No, it's not." Then we all started naming off things we were thankful for... my children, the fact that they have never ever been hungry in their life, a warm bed, a house to live in, toys to play with. We talked about how there are many people that are not so fortunate and that there are children who are hungry, thirsty, and have no family to love them.

I just finished reading 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, by Jen Hatmaker. It resonated with my soul. Josh was the unfortunate recipient of being read aloud to more times than he wished. In each chapter she takes an area (food, clothes, possessions, media, waste, spending, stress) of excess in her life and trims it down for a month. Seven areas in seven months and they are all reduced down to seven simple choices. She explains that it's like a fast to create room for God to move. I like her prayer, "Jesus, may there be less of me and my junk and more of You and Your Kingdom."

I am so guilty. I bite right into consumerism America and it's right to excess. We waste food weekly. How many times I dump food right in the trash can.. sometimes food that we've never touched because it's sat in the refrigerator too long. Though I don't spend a lot on my clothes (hey yoga pants and old sweatshirts are pretty cheap), my closet is full of clothes from over 10 years ago that I never wear. Possessions.. I can't even go there. We've dumped an absorbent amount of money in a concrete hole in our back yard. Our house which we've lived in 1 1/2 years is bulging with stuff. Our 3 car garage has so much crap in it none of our cars can even park in there! Media is a huge hole for me. I spend way too much time on my phone, computer, and DVR'd shows. Every Friday, Josh's dad comes to pick up our trash and there have been times he's taken a WHOLE truck load of just our garbage.. talk about waste. Spending .. Olivia has more clothes in her closet that she can possibly wear. Does she really need two Thanksgiving outfits and 5 Christmas outfits! Am I being a good steward? Jen says, "Now I am completely careless. And clueless. Anyone who spends money in sixty-six places a month is the most heinous kind of consumer." I am too embarrassed to even count the number of places we've spent money in one month.

"So we spend, spend: amass, amass: indulge, indulge, item by item, growing increasingly deaf to Jesus who described a simple life marked by generosity and underconsumption. I used to say, 'But we tithe, and that money goes to stuff Jesus was all into'. Except many churches use it for marble floors and shiny buildings and cool videos and expensive mailers and pretty landscaping and fancy sound equipment, and in one recent case, an awesome multi-million dollar jet." "I would marvel at how out of place, humble Jesus would be in today's American churches." -Jen Hatmaker

Now I'm not at the place where I ~~can~~ want to reduce all these areas in my life for a month but it does get me thinking. What little ways can I change? I don't want my children growing up expecting excess and living indulgently either. I see so much room for improvement in all these areas of my life and honestly it's a little overwhelming. First, I am going to take baby steps.

It's almost Christmas. Stabbings in Walmart over stuff.. just stuff. Isn't that ridiculous. This year like in previous years we are adhering to our 3 rule. Each child gets three presents from us. Yep.. that's it. If three presents were good enough for Jesus they are good enough for anybody! We've also found a local family to help this year. As I sat at Josh's grandmother's funeral several weeks ago there was a family in the back of the church standing. There were 10 kids (9 boys and 1 girl) ranging in age from 14 to a wee baby. They were dressed so shabbily but they were clean, quiet, and respectful during the entire service. You would have never known they were there. Would Olivia and Eli stand through a hour long church service with nothing to entertain themselves. Heck No! I wasn't even crazy enough to bring them... they stayed with Nana. How come these kids did? Well I believe it's because they aren't being lavished in excess. They don't get every whim met and entertained constantly. So this year we are going to buy presents for these kids and our kids will help.