Can money buy us happiness? If we were all gathered together and I asked for a show of hands for that question, I don’t think most of us would raise our hands to it. Mostly, we understand that money doesn’t ultimately buy happiness or joy. So why do we continue to act like we believe it can?

Every time we add to our collection of things, we are in danger of being controlled and possessed by those things. Every time we say “yes” to our children’s or grandchildren’s desires for material things when we should have said “no”, we are teaching them to fulfill their own material desires above all else.

The love of money and happiness are incompatible. Jesus said, “It is as hard for a rich man to enter heaven as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” His disciples thought that was a hard saying. Perhaps they understood the concept that you don’t have to be Donald Trump or Bill Gates to be thought of as “rich” to most of the world.

Most of the people of the world don’t own a car, have air conditioning, indoor plumbing, access to a doctor or a refrigerator. Based on that information, there are a lot of us working middle class or poor people in the U.S. and Europe who might just have a hard time entering heaven. That’s definitely a hard saying.

The owning of material things is not sinful. No more than money itself is sinful. Money is a tool. Jesus told us that it is the love of that tool that leads to sin. So then the love of our things and the lust to accumulate is materialism and that is a dangerous thing. It causes us to become un-focused and disconnected with family, friends and God. It can change our mind-set to the degree that we are not able to achieve enjoyment of life, even when we have everything we need in life. It is subtle in its work on our minds, just like all sin is. And soon, we are never satisfied.

According to Anne Morrow Lindbergh the secret to loving and enjoying one’s life is finding out “how little one can get along with, not how much.” Just how much of our stuff do we have to love before it becomes materialism? I believe the answer would shock us.

Most women have a longing, sometimes an ache, for a simpler lifestyle. I know I’ve had that longing in my own life. Do you go to great lengths to learn how to make soap, make bread and learn handcrafts? I certainly have. Do you grow a garden and can your family’s foods? Yes, I did. Perhaps you have learned to save and reuse many items as well as “make do” with what you have. I’ve always tried to be a frugal person. I don’t think there is anything wrong with any of them! But while all these endeavors are admirable and worthy pursuits, alone, they cannot bring us the peace and simple lifestyle we yearn for.

What happens many times in the quest for a simple lifestyle (and what happened to me) is that though we are making items and utilizing God’s blessings in a better way, our focus doesn’t change. The focus can still be on “things” and how much we can accumulate, own or produce for ourselves. The assumption is still that the more things we accumulate and own, the happier we will be.

So the way we think about possessions has to change if we want to find our way out of the sinkhole of materialism. It is possible to live what looks like a very frugal lifestyle and still be materialistic at heart.

There only a very few things in life that are truly necessary. The real feat is teaching one’s self to live a contented life without the excess things we are accustomed to having around us and to find a balance between what we possess and what we can do without. Jesus promises that God will provide two things to His children in Matthew 6:33… “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Again in 1 Timothy 6:8 We are told, “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”
The context of these statements is that we are to focus on God and His will, not on accumulating earthly wealth that can only rust, rot and crumble.

The stuff and junk and things we collect don’t bring us simplicity, they simply bring us a false sense of security, pride and comfort. Jesus said, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal.” Yet we continue to collect our own stash of stuff. It’s as if we are afraid to step out and let go of our stuff so we continue to collect more, adding to the pile, adding to the pile, adding to our fake security blanket.

It’s a really difficult thing to stand stripped naked of our stuff before the Lord. When we realize though that He is all that we need we have to make that conscious decision to cry out to Him and then to climb out of the stuff and the old habits that created the monster of materialism in our lives. Once you do this, I promise you, you will never be the same again. God can change your thought processes about possessions. You will never be completely content again with meaningless spending and buying junk your family doesn’t need.

Since most of us have far more than we need, here is an exercise for you this holiday season to help you to see how attached you may be to your possessions. It will help you stretch yourself a little in giving away some of them. Get yourself an empty grocery bag. Now go through the house and pick up at least three things that belong to you, that you will give away and not replace. Immediately go to the local Goodwill, Salvation Army or other place of charity and hand over those items. Don’t wait til tomorrow.

Now think about these wise words from Randy Alcorn concerning Possessions:

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the more you want.

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the less you’re satisfied.

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the more people will come after it.

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the more you realize it does you no good.

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the more you have to worry about.

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it.

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the more you have to lose.

THE MORE YOU HAVE, the more you’ll leave behind.

© 2006 Sylvia Britton

After God began to work in my life to convict me of bad grocery spending habits I began to search out new ways to save and be frugal. My biggest concern was feeding my family healthily and saving money. Was it possible to have a modest budget for my groceries and still eat healthily? The way I had been doing it wasn’t working. I was buying and preparing fad foods and listening to so called experts online about what kinds of foods were healthy.

I don’t know why I was listening to what people who set themselves up as experts tell me about food, I learned everything I needed to know about what is healthy and what is not healthy from my Mother when I was at home as a child and young woman. So I went back to that knowledge and examined it to see if it was still usable. It was definitely usable! And it is serving us very well.

Here is a reminder of the questions I asked myself and what set me on this quest to eat well and spend less…

• Is God in control?
• Does He care about me and my children?
• Is He trying to teach me something?
• Will God take care of me, my family and our health if I simply buy what I can reasonably afford?
• Is it right for me to spend so much money on organic food that I have nothing left to share?
• Is it responsible of me to spend so much on food for my family that we don’t have money for other necessities?

Is God in control?
Well, either He is or He isn’t. I believe He is, but that He allows us to make choices that can alter our lives for good or bad. If He is in control, I have to also ask myself whether or not I can trust Him. My answer is that Yes, I know I can trust Him with my life, my family, my health and finances.

Does God care about me and my children?
As a Christian, I believe He cares about every facet of our lives. Therefore, I believe that He cares about our health, welfare and finances, and how we use the resources He has given us.

Is He trying to teach me something?
Obviously, He was trying to teach me something about faith and reliance upon Him for what we needed in addition to lessons in good stewardship.

Will God take care of me, my family and our health if I simply buy what I can reasonably afford?
This is the gist of my thoughts. If I cease buying expensive whole foods and organic foods, and just buy foods that I can reasonably afford and stay within my budget, will God take care of my health? Can I expect Him to do that, even when I don’t buy the best? I believe He will! I believe He does. I believe He is trustworthy, caring and protective.

Is it right for me to spend so much money on organic food that I have nothing left to share?
I believe that it is NOT right at all to do this. The Christian life is all about giving, caring for others, sharing and taking responsibility for helping those who need help. We are not wealthy. I have a specific amount of money each week and when it is budgeted, it is not available for other things. We budget money for utilities, gasoline, groceries, personal items like medicines and school. When I was spending huge amounts for organic and specialty foods, I was not able to give anything! I rationalized the expense by saying that I was keeping my family healthy. But the problem with what I was doing was this:

I was trying to do something good for my family and at the same time I was violating at least three other principles of God’s Word! I was not walking in faith, I was not giving to others and I was making our healthy eating an idol.

Is it responsible of me to spend so much on food for my family that we don’t have money for other necessities?
No, it was not responsible of me to do so. I was skimping on things that we both needed and wanted. Our wants are not great, but I was not even able to buy occasional treats like popcorn or craft items for the children to work on because I was over-spending at the grocery and thought it was a good thing.

Now, I want to remind you of this: There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying and eating organic and whole foods. Absolutely nothing! My whole point is that we must eat within our means. My family still eats whole foods, I just don’t make the expensive recipes and use exotic ingredients that bump up my grocery bill.

Part three will include some steps that I took to drastically reduce my grocery bill and make it possible for me to serve nutritious foods to my family and to have money in my budget to share with others.