I was just wandering around at the internet and thinking about finances…mine are just a tad strained. I have a book called “How to Gain Control of Your Finances” by Stan Toler and it made me stop and think very hard. It is a biblical look at how we can control our desires and let God handle our needs. I just want to say that the God of the Universe and Father of humanity is doing a far better job than Andi Wittwer.
Look at your real needs: food, water, shelter, clothing, warmth. Prioritize them: that’s pretty simple. You need to figure out how to use your tools both physical and mental to acquire and maintain your basic needs.
How you try to deal with those needs? We all have built up around us a protective mental shield about how much money we need to have ‘stuff’ around us. Will you die if you don’t have an IPad? Please don’t answer yes. As I look around me I see a cozy house. I have clothing, coats and shoes. In the cabinets I have food. All this other ‘stuff’ around me is just to keep me busy and not thinking.
The writer of Ecclesiastes 3 says “12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.” We can busy ourselves in this life with all the stuff. Some people gather and store it like squirrels as if it had integral meaning and thinking it can satisfy them. When they die, someone cleans it out and throws it away. It doesn’t bring any comfort at the moment of death. Consider the next line, ”14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.”
So often folks brush off the eternal aspect of life, the spiritual life. Don’t do that. Life is only temporary. Eternity with the Lord is such a marvelous gift and I think we should pursue it.
Jewell Johnson Mysteries by Andrea Wittwer 
Funny, I was just thinking about all the stuff around me this morning. I should take a picture of my typical Monday morning. Stuff, suff, stuff EVERYWHERE!! I try so hard to keep our stuff organized as most of it can be used for learning, but it like falls off the shelves as children and husband walks by it. I won’t even get into the candy wrappers on the floor. Grammie and Grampa had A LOT of stuff at the farm when I was growing up, but that meant that us kids ALWAY had something to do and explore and look at. I to this day love goofy doorknobs, ugly bowls, and 70’s colored glass paper weights. My kids don’t have IPads, although we are getting a Kindle through Hacil so books will be at our fingertips, or even that many toys. I keep the basic, blocks, cars, linclon logs, legos etc… at my house hoping that they will use their imaginations. I also will occasionally bring home fridge boxes which they love to flattenness… I don’t consider myself a “hoarder”, but I do have a lot of stuff we don’t need.
Stuff Stuff STUFF,
It piles up doesn’t it? I am avoiding any kind of retail place. I think that is the best idea. Food, heat and comfort. That’s what we need. Candy we don’t need. Toys we don’t need. Those are wants. Until we have the money to pay cash up front for needs, we should descend into the hole of debt called wants.
Love, mom.