This blog has been roaming around in my mind for a while now. I haven't really been sure how to word it, so I have just left it up there instead of putting it out for the world to read. My fear is that my blogger friends...or any of my friends for that matter...will think I am speaking of them. I'm not. I'm not quite sure what sparked my initial thought, but it has stuck with me. Anyway, please know that I am not speaking of any of you. :o) Here goes...
Our society has really been bothering me lately. Maybe it's always been this way, I don't know. I've always heard the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses". So, I guess it has. It just seems like people our age are so quick to have the big house & expensive cars. When you look at the price of most new cars, they start at $20,000! Many people have 2 new cars & a nice new house. Now, I'm not judging those who can afford it because there are many who can afford it. But can they all REALLY afford it?! My fear is that we have grown up in nice houses thanks to the hard work & dedication of our parents. What we didn't stop to think about is that they worked their tails off to get those places. They started small, sacrificed, & now are able to have the nice things. If that is how they got there, what makes me think I can get there at 28? It seems many believe it is their right or they deserve a nice car or house. Who said anything about that?! I don't remember anyone telling me that when I got out on my own I would deserve a nice car. I've always been told that you have to work hard & earn it. Of course, God provides all. I do not dispute that.
I just fear that my generation has gotten quite greedy. It seems that banks, credit card companies, and others are capitalizing on that greed. I mean, any company who would send a pre-approved letter for a credit card & allow a high school student to get $30,000 in debt before she graduates is evil in my opinion! (No, I was not that student, I saw it on the news a few weeks ago.)
Ryan and I are trying very hard to not get roped into that greed or feeling of deserving things. Of course, we would love to be driving nice new cars & live in a nice house of our own, but what would that cost us? Right now...it would cost us everything. I know that is not what God intended. He did not intend for us to be so majorly in debt that we can't sleep at night.
So, our plan is to go by our parents' examples & the Bible. We will work & sacrifice as they did. We will try to teach our children the values that we were taught. If we are blessed by nice things, we will give praise to God for those things. We will not be guilted & pressured into doing things that society deems successful but in reality will suffocate our family. Living this way is not easy by any means. Our world says that if you don't have those things, you aren't a successful. Our job is to take off the glasses that our society puts on us & see what God intended & what He has provided. It isn't an easy job, but we're working on it.
4 comments:
Amen sister, preach on. If it weren't for hand-me-down furniture, we'd have sat on the floor the first 10 years of our married lives!
I agree 100%. I read a really good book in my homemaker's group that talked about the same thing. I really enjoyed it. Here is a link. You can also go to familylife.com and there is more information too. This is the organization that puts on Weekend to Remember, an awesome marriage conference.
http://www.timkimmel.com/resources/resources/truegreatness/index.asp
PS the book is by Dr Tim Kimmel and is called Raising Kids for True Greatness
We "had it all" once-not a mansion but new cars and a house payment we could not afford, it nearly cost us our marriage. We love our (mostly)paid for stuff. Slow and steady wins the race.
We have to remind ourselves of that often when we come home to our humble abode. We would love a much bigger and newer house, but we would not enjoy being "house poor".
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