Week 3 - Possessions

Another great week, that has left me with tons to think about. This week was about possessions. The goal for this week was to give away seven things every day. So, basically over the course of the week I would come up with 49 things to give away.

One thing I love about this chapter is that Jen, the author, doesn't just take the stuff to Goodwill. She puts it aside and wants to be really intentional about who or what she gives her stuff too. It's easy to clean out a bunch of stuff and just go drop it off. But what if God has a specific person in mind who needs that exact thing, wouldn't that be amazing to watch and see how God could specifically bless someone with my "extra" stuff. (I'm still waiting on this one!)

Day 1 of this week started off with me buying a ton of clothes for Kara on craigslist. It was all stuff she will be needing but I couldn't help but wonder if I should feel guilty for bringing two huge trash bags and a box full of stuff into our house during the week that I'm supposed to be purging my shelves of all the unused and unnecessary items that build up.  But ultimately it was a great deal and at least I wasn't buying unnecessary items. ;)

To be honest with the kids being home, I have not had the time to go through everything that I've wanted to go through yet, but really do you even finish getting rid of stuff. It's like purge a closet of unwanted items, then move on to next closet...etc, then go to kitchen, garage, pantry...etc, then start over and repeat! This week the question I've been asking myself is: what does it mean to live simply? Then my mind does a spin trying to figure out the answer. It's not wrong to buy something for my myself or my house or my kids but at that the same time what can I live without. Or what do I have that I don't need that could be a blessing to someone else.

I did have the kids help me clean out the play room. I put our two big boxes and said let's fill these with toys we want to give away. The two boxes did end up pretty full but here's a picture of the what the process looked like: for the first five minutes everyone was excited about the idea, then the excitement dwindled as the boys just started playing with the toys, which led to me having to constantly reminding them what we're doing. Meanwhile, they kept trying to put toys in that we still played with or actually used and I was saying NO! Really, what was I thinking???? I said yes to a few but I should have let them give those things away because sometimes giving hurts or can cost us. So we did fill some boxes but it didn't quite look like I had pictured it.

Mike has been reading a book by Randy Alcorn called "Money, Possessions and Eternity." It has really been challenging him. He told me I had to read it. I'm not the best at getting through books and it's pretty darn thick so it's gonna take a lil motivation! Anyways, the other night Mike says, "I've been thinking maybe occassionally when we come across someone in need we should just let them come into our house and take one thing. Whatever they want." Immediately I was like, ANYTHING BUT MY KITCHENAID MIXER!!!! He said, "Becky, you think if someone is really in need that they're gonna take your kitchenaid mixer?" Good point...but you never know!!! I haven't agreed to that idea yet either! (Yep, I'm pretty sure I'm going to cross paths any day with someone who has been praying for a white kitchenaid mixer! And I hope if that's the case that I easily and freely give it to that person, knowing that it's just a thing. And maybe, just maybe that answered prayer for that person is how they realize God loves them. Even in the simple act of giving them the exact mixer they prayed for! I'll keep ya posted!!!)

KEEP READING, I'M PUMPED ABOUT WHAT'S NEXT!!! SOOOO our lil group that is reading this book together has felt challenged to take action in this area. We are hoping to do a FREE garage sale in our church parking lot for those who are in need. We are going to bring our stuff, announce it at church so others can bring their stuff and love on those in need by getting to hand them our extras. (Doesn't that sound so sad in a way. We have so much extra, well I do anyway, and there are many with nothing!)

As we were meeting, I asked women to throw out needs they already knew of that maybe we could begin to meet. Someone said they knew someone who needed kitchen supplies, another who needed home furnishings and here's the big one...a poor family that needed a house. Now who on earth is gonna donate a house??? But we serve a big God who can do whatever he wants. So we prayed and asked God for these things. Here's the CRAZY part...one of the ladies said that she has an extra house that's she hasn't been sure what she's going to do with it! I don't know what will happen, but can you believe it! God didn't start with the smallest one, he started with the greatest! I'll wrap this one up with my fav quote from this chapter:

"Until God asks for everything and we answer, "It's yours," we don't yet have ears to hear or eyes to see. We're still deaf to the truth, blind to freedom, deceived by the treasures of the world, imagining them to be the key when they are actually the lock."