After 7 months of working toward two specific goals, I finally managed to meet both of them this week. The first goal was to observe the Sabbath. The second goal has been to cut our grocery bill in half.
On Sunday, we went to church and with the exception of getting gas and grabbing the Sunday papers, I truly celebrated the day by resting and focusing on God. If I had planned better, I would have gotten gas on Saturday. The Sunday papers - well they are only available on Sunday. I made a quick lunch and didn't bother with dishes until after supper, which we ate around 7:30 p.m. No laundry. No paying bills. No redecorating for Spring. Instead, I took a nap and rested my physical being. I spent some quality time with my husband and some quality time with God. No guilt for not being busy. It was amazing and I am so grateful that God has given us the gift of the Sabbath.
The second goal of cutting our grocery bill in half has taken me about 7 months, but it has finally happened for four weeks in a row. In the excitement of experiencing some financial freedom, I quickly found myself addicted to the savings. I refuse to allow the enemy to enslave me to something that is meant to be freeing and God honoring. So I have had to be intentional in some of my time management. Observing the Sabbath has actually helped with this. I would love to head out after church to grab this week's deals. Not this week though. I am trusting God that what I need will still be there later this week when I go shopping. Instead of making multiple trips, I am trying to get it down to one.
I am trying to be more aware and more intentional of how I spend my time and my money. It is too easy to become a slave to stuff and busyness. I know. While it might not seem like a big deal, every little act of self-discipline and self-control is actually freeing and rewarding.
If I want to lead a simpler life, then I have to make decisions that will help lead to that. I'm not looking to take extra stuff out of my life only to fill it with more meaningless stuff. I want all my priorities to be in order and I want my time with God and my family to be intentional and have quality. I'm learning to say 'no' in a lot of areas and be more aware of how I waste my time and how I want to actually use it.
God gave me enough time and enough resources. How I use them or misuse them is up to me.
1 comment:
This is so beautiful. I really admire your determination and discipline. I remember when we used to celebrate the sabbath. On Sundays we would make our lunch very early in the morning before we went to church, when we came back we ate and we rested. The kids couldn't go to any sports events, we didn't go shopping any where. Now we just talk about it and it seems so far from us.
Thank you for encouraging me to make an effort at this again because of how rewarding it is and how honoring it is to God. I've also been reading what Paul said about discipling my body so maybe now is the right time.
Blessings,
Vickie
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