Living on less. Ahhh, doesn’t that sound lovely? I think it does and this week I’m going to share with you why it sounds so lovely and how I came to this place of longing for less.
The other day I was sitting at Panera Bread eating a bowl of french onion soup, having a moment of silence (a break away from my three kids), and pondering why I can never get my life together. It’s not that I don’t try. I do. I’ve tried so many times. I’ve tried so many things. So much organization. So many schedules. So many ideas. Why can’t I pull it together and do this thing called life? I keep organizing things and reorganizing schedules just to find that a few days later my house and my “schedule” is in shambles again. I’m constantly doing dishes, cleaning house, picking up toys, and taking care of all the other things I “have” to do while neglecting the things I’d like to do and the people that need my love.
I don’t even know how it happened but I ended up reading some blogs on minimalism. It’s not that I hadn’t heard of it before. Who hasn’t heard of a tiny house? In fact, I’d thought about moving into one. It just didn’t seem like the right thing at the right time. But that day at Panera I read something that made me think. (Well, I read a lot of things that made me think, but one sentence really stuck out.)
You don’t have to live in a tiny house to be a minimalist.
I thought, “What a novel idea!” So, I researched more on simplifying life and how to make time for the things that matter most.
The funny thing is, I’m not really a “stuff collector.” I already considered myself fairly minimalistic compared to your average American. But then I remembered something I heard Greg Harris say in his parenting class on “Raising Kids to Do Hard Things.”
If your child has more than he can manage, he has too much.
Another light bulb went on. Aha! That goes for me too. It doesn’t matter what the neighbors have. It only matters if I can keep up with what I have. And I can’t. Neither can my kids. 🙂
I wonder if others out there are feeling the way I’ve been feeling for so long? Maybe you’re a working mom, or a single mom, or a homeschooling mom, or maybe you’re a working, single, homeschooling mom like me. Whatever your situation, it’s not fun to be constantly organizing and never organized, and I’m realizing that it’s not fun to live with someone who is constantly organizing.
Galatians 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…”
Is it possible that we are lacking in these fruits because we are so overwhelmed with life that we are neglecting the more important things and people? Is it possible that too much stuff has a part in robbing us of our joy? I think so and I am embarking on a journey to do something about it. I hope you will join me!
Learning to live on less,
Kim
