08
Proverbs Challenge/Spring Cleaning Devotional
Posted by SylviaWe’re still working in the Living Room today and catching up in the Master Bedroom.
Today, instead of a devotional, I am going to tell you a story and share with you a few things I learned some years ago. I say I learned it, but I actually started to learn it and I am still learning about contentment.
Spring Cleaning is a good time to take stock of your own level of contentment. You’re pulling out lots of things, stuff and junk and having to clean it and store it, so you might want to ask yourself some hard questions about it all.
There is no doubt something in this post that will offend you. I don’t do it out of meanness, but out of loving you and caring about your life. I hope my mistakes and sins of the past will be a warning to you.
This is long, so if you need to, just come back when you are ready to take a break in your cleaning. I’ll wait right here
About 20 years ago or so Mark and I made a decision to get out of debt. We felt forced to do so, I don’t know if we would have undertaken the task if we hadn’t felt backed against a wall. We cut up our credit cards, made a budget and for the next 20 years we stuck to it, veered from it and made our way back to it by degrees.
We were pretty bad off in the beginning, actually. It seemed like we owed everyone. I felt personally responsible because most of it was due to my medical condition. Other situations arose, our church split, we lost friends. Mark lost two jobs due to layoffs. We nearly lost our home. I had a miscarriage and continued to be ill. We had no vehicle. It was a very low time for both of us. But the Lord dragged us through it.
We put ourselves on a very strict repayment plan. We didn’t even shop at the Goodwill Store, we couldn’t afford it. The creditors were getting pretty ugly and that kept me in a turmoil. I developed ulcers and couldn’t afford to go to a Dr. and being young and immature, I began to feel a sinful resentment toward my husband and toward God.
We accepted things from other people, we made things and we did without a lot. I don’t think the children really knew what we were going through, they were young. But I gave up a lot of what I’d call “luxuries”.
We went from having all the money anyone could want or need to poverty level in about 3 months. I bought designer clothes and designer coffee. I had all the “bling” and big hair anyone could want (we had really big hair in the 80’s). We were marginally happy and I could see this big change in our financial status like a freight train coming to tear my play house down.
While I was weaning myself off of buying things that I didn’t need, I started studying scripture. Because of my sinful attitude and my bad spending habits, Psalm 51 became my daily prayer. Some of the other things I read were:
“Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment…” 1 Timothy 6:6
“If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” 1 Timothy 6:8
“The fear of the LORD leads to life, So that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.” Proverbs 19:23
“If they listen and serve him, they complete their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.” Job 36:11
“They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” 1 Timothy 6:18
“The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives;” Psalm 37:21
I knew that God was teaching us to be content with what He provided. But while I was learning, I found some roadblocks to my contentment. There are other things that cause discontent of course,…. for example, you may find it difficult to drive around the countryside and look at large, beautiful homes without feeling a pang of envy. Or you may have a hard time going to the Mall or shopping center and looking at all the stuff and not being covetous. Not everything here will be a roadblock for everyone. But all of these things have the potential for creating discontent in women.
I found several of what I call Contentment Thieves. These are the main things I want to share with you today. I hope you are not discontent, but chances are, at least some of you reading here do feel some measure of discontent. What I am hoping is that this list will help you identify those thieves that come in and rob you of your contentment. Once you identify what your thieves are, you can run from them!
1) The Biggie. Television.
Oh my, I could watch TV all day when I was a young mother at home all day long with no adult company. And if I thought it was bad 20 years ago, it is ten times worse today because of all the viewing choices available. The commercials, the reality shows, the commercials that tell young people that it is ever so desirable to have everything you want and have it NOW.
Are you watching television and finding yourself putting down your husband and your life in your mind? Comparing what others have with what you feel like you don’t have? Becoming more and more discontent and more and more down about your life?
Listen up sisters, if you are feeling any of those things, its time to shut off the TV.
2) “Christian” Romance novels and other “Romance” novels.
I bought a few Christian Romance novels once I got a part time job and the boys were in school. I escaped into Victorian mansions and Scottish moors and found men who were so much more alluring and attentive than my husband, women I related to and situations that could have been mine if I had only… I wanted my husband to be like those men. Why couldn’t he be romantic now and then?
It took me about three novels to see what was happening to me and throw them away. But I know women who are so immersed in those kinds of novels that they almost live them in their minds. Some of you read these novels and they don’t affect you like that, more power to you…. but be careful.
Romance novels have been called pornography for women for good reason. A man may look at pictures but a woman can read and sin in her thoughts just the way a man can. Again, be careful.
3) Catalogs.
Look at all the pretty things! And look and look and look….. and covet and desire things more than one should. My dear MIL had a way of building desire for things in me, and she did it unknowingly. She would call me and we’d look through sale magazines and catalogs together over the phone. She’d say, “You should get that.” “You need to get one of those.” And for a while I believed her. Then I stopped taking catalogs. I believe moderation is key but if catalogs cause you to be discontent, you may need to stop taking them too.
4) Women’s Magazines.
Even the most demure magazine has tons of advertisements. Some really nice magazines are filled with ads for things and pictures of lovely homes filled with things and stuff and really pretty decor. Magazines though can have a way of building a desire for things that we really don’t need. Moderation.
5) Back in the day we didn’t have the Shopping Channel, but I think that is one thing that young women today should avoid. I know one women personally who got herself into $10,000 in debt just buying things she liked on TV. If you don’t watch it, you won’t buy it, simple enough.
6) Friends who brought me down and fueled the fire within that demanded Things. I learned quickly who these friends were and sadly, since I could not convince them to help me, I had to avoid many of them. The Lord was so kind to me and sent me new friends who based our friendship on love and admiration, not on material wealth.
7) Finally, I had to get over the thief that said I deserved all those things. I wrestled with this one the most because I felt that God would not deny me things, I was, after all, His child. But I learned that the most important lesson of my life during that time; Jesus Christ and Him crucified is all I need.
Everything else, the hair, the “bling”, the clothes, the fine homes, the cars, the vacations, the video games, the books, the restaurants, while not sinful in themselves, were like filthy nasty rags compared to the knowledge of Jesus. And even though I was a church-going Christian, I had been putting them before Him.
Just because we are children of the King does not mean that the King gives us everything we want. Some things are not good for us. Sometimes He withholds things that we think are good, to give us something even better!
Sometimes He takes away what we have so that we can learn what is important.
I guess this story is one of the reasons simplicity in life is so important to me now. It is SO easy to get up and get back on that wagon of prosperity and things and stuff. I now know what true prosperity is! I don’t want to fall back to old habits so I preach to myself regularly, Jesus and Him crucified!
Fast forward 25 years. We’re out of debt. God has miraculously provided for us through the years. I can’t list them all, this post is already too long! We have never, ever gone without anything we needed. He is our loving Father!
If you read this whole thing, a blessing on you! I promise I will make the other devotionals shorter! I have shortened it and shortened it as much as I could, but I hope it will cause you to talk to your Heavenly Father about whatever is on your heart regarding contentment, need and want.
I love you… I hope I haven’t hurt your feelings with this post, but I do know that the hurt of a friend is true and can bring a lifetime of change and joy!