Couple weeks ago I was reading this blog and Pete asked for you to fill in the blank to this question: "The older I get........"
My response to that question was,
"The older I get the more I realize that less is more, all I need is Jesus and my family. The rest of just excess. "
Shortly after that I was watching the Today Show and heard about this story:
Go ahead, watch it... I'll wait.
Basically, Physiologists and Counselors are finding that when you live on a less is more life style where your "stuff" isn't the important things that you tend to live happier and fuller lives. Concentrating more on the experiences in life, rather than the things.
It really got me thinking even more about the life I lead. The couple that was interviewed paired down their lives to 100 possessions total, got rid of their car and moved into a 400 sq. foot apartment. Saving time and money making their lifestyle better.
When I lost my job almost two years ago, Orion and I saw how quickly what you once thought was the 'life' could be so quickly taken away from you. We were just living, we didn't expect the lay off and we certainly weren't prepared for it. We soon faced loosing the home we worked so hard for, and for a while there we thought we'd lost everything.
It was during those moments that we downsized, cut out every thing financially that was not needed, cut bills, sold things, and started to look more on the inside and took a look at what mattered most to us. We very swiftly had to learn to live on ONE income.
We now live on the theory of ONE for just about everything.
Since then we've paired down many times gotten rid of the excess in our lives on a lot of different levels. I feel like I learned a lot through that experience, I'm still learning a lot even almost two years later.
God is teaching me. He's teaching me that the grass isn't always greener. That money doesn't buy happiness, not even close.
I've learned that faith and family are the only things that matter. They sustain me and keep me going. There's nothing in this life worth sacrificing family for, in the end they will be there. Always.
And the biggest lesson I feel like I've learned through all of this is a closer, deeper relationship with Christ first. I feel challenged to look at the things in my life and ask;
"Are they bringing me closer to Christ or taking me farther away?"
I feel challenged to not take this life for granted, to live to the fullest, and anticipate the good that God is going to bring into our lives through our faithfulness to Him.
