Excess!

Excess.....This word over the last few years has really hit home with me! I have really felt like God has been dealing with me when it comes to excess! I feel like we live in a world that is full of excess...food, clothing, entertainment, money, information, basically everything! When is enough enough? What happen to times when people were happy with less than more?
Ok so I know you are thinking where in the world is this all coming from? Well I have started a book called 7 from Jen Hatmaker! If you don't know about it, look it up! It is amazing and has really been an eye opener to me! Basically the book is about the world of excess we live in. The book is how Jen took seven months, identified seven areas of excess and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern day diseases of greed, materialism and overindulgence! Like I said the past several years I have been dealing with these issues but this book has just added to it!
The first thing that comes to my mind is clothing....I love to shop! I have always loved to shop! Clothing has always been my go to thing. I love to put on a new outfit and feel good about myself!Being a stay at home mom has really changed my outlook on this issue and I think God did this on purpose! I think I used clothes and shopping as a way of finding happiness when I needed to be turning to him instead! Its funny because being a stay at home mom I hardly ever dress up. I live in yoga pants and cotton tshirts! I don't need the clothes I thought I needed and it has shown me that clothes do not make you happy! You can be happy in yoga pants every single day! Also why do we need half a dozen pairs of jeans? Why do we need tons of shoes...and really to me some of it gets embarrassing talking about it! I can't believe the amount we spend on clothing when in a couple of months or years it will go to Helping Hands.
The next thing is possessions....Oh my...This one blows my mind! Our homes are full to the brim of things that the world says will make us happy! They make us happy for the first 10 minutes we own them then they are thrown in the closet or attic and we find something else we think we need! Why have we let the world program us to think that things make us happy?? The more things we have the better? I look around my home and am shocked at what all we have! We own computers, tvs, several i's (pads,phones,pods) furniture, my kitchen is stocked full of serving ware, dinnerware, you name it and I am sure we have it! In the book she talks about giving away 7 things a day for 30 days! I love this because not only does it get rid of clutter but really makes you think about what you have! Joyce Meyer talks about driving by a junk yard and stating that all that stuff was once someones dream! Eventually all the junk I have in my house will be in a junk yard! Sad to think about but so true! Am I more worried about how much stuff I can get or am I asking God how I can use this stuff to bring honor to his kingdom! Is there something in my home that can bring joy and show love to someone else?
Food- I dread talking about this because I love food! I am sad to say that my family does waste a lot of food. It makes me very sick to my stomach to think of the food we throw away and there are families starving around the world! How in the United States do we have so much and other places have so little? How and why did God choose to bless me with so much and others so little?
I think where I am going with all this is that I have had enough. I am so sick of stuff. I am sick of depending on things. I am tired of constantly buying toys and other stuff and 2 months later away it goes. I am tired of worrying about my house and what it looks like! I want to get away from all this! I want to be different than the world! I want to be more like Jesus! I want to feed the hungry and give to the poor! I want to love on the unloved! and most importantly I want to make sure that I don't miss out on what God wants for me! How can we honestly serve God when we are so caught up in the world and all the excess!? Now please don't get offended by any of this ...I am not pointing fingers I am mostly talking about myself and how I feel! I think these are things that I have let take over my life to a point and its time to change!


Hope everyone has a blessed day!
Lots of love..