Humble beginnings into adulthood are often accompanied by less stress and busyness in our life. A lack of disposable finances prevents us from buying “toys” that encumber us with more responsibility, and from amassing clutter in our living space that adds to the tension in our soul.
A major event in my life started me on the road to adopting a minimalist life view. My family of a husband and three pre-teens moved from a four-story townhouse in the inner city of Harrisburg, PA to a 31-foot travel trailer. We traveled the eastern USA - from PA to FL to AR to MI and back again about twice a year for four years. It was a tight squeeze, but we eventually sold everything in our townhouse and adjusted to our new environment.
My former husband felt God calling him to minister to pastors and church leadership along the way. This gave us a multitude of environmental, educational, social, and spiritual experiences to treasure for the rest of our life. We also learned to prefer each other, have patience with one another, and to work in sync as a team.
In the trailer, each of us had a small closet and a drawer for clothes, and a bed to sleep in, along with the common living area including kitchen, dining room, and living room/computer space for our Commodore 64 and a set of World Book Encyclopedias.
I had the privilege and challenge of teaching our three children with A-Beka curriculum for home school parents as we traveled to places that we read about in our textbooks (abeka.com). We had a microscope to study the activity in the water in ponds we encountered, art supplies, board games, and a large Tupperware box per child to keep their schoolwork and supplies organized.
Since then, I felt a desire not to add more and more clutter in my life, even when we settled in a home in AR and our children went into the public school system during their teen years. In fact, today I have no car, no phone, no clutter in my home, shopping only at thrift stores, no extra gadgets or decorations, only that which is functional and necessary to make life easier, not more tense and stressful. I LOVE it that way. After all, the earth is not really our home – I am heaven-bound.
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for making us aware of satanic influences in both our desires and the world’s influence over us to accumulate this world’s goods, rather than to focus on our spiritual walk, ministry in the church and our vocation, and our relationship with You. Your Word encourages us to release our obsession with material things, which allows us to relax in Your constant watch-care over us.
Thank You for Your constant interest in our life and the wisdom and power You give to each of us (Hebrews 13:5-6; 1 John 2:17). Teach us that a life devoted to You and Your Kingdom encourages us to adopt a lifestyle that is rich in simplicity rather than in accumulating this world’s possessions and attitude (1 Timothy 6:6-8; Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 12:15). Help us not to complicate our life unnecessarily in our thinking, possessions, activities, and worldview with the values of a routine that will end with our life on this earth (1 Corinthians 7:30-31).
Thoughts for the Day:
Walking in a minimalist existence just takes time and practice in curbing our Inner Child's enthusiasm to collect worldly goods and instead to maintain a constant eternal focus. Pursuing spiritual maturity and the timeless things of God that build an investment for us that will last for an eternity helps us to downsize our ties to this earth and brings to us the reward of God’s eternal love, peace, joy, and contentment.
- 1 Timothy 6:17-19
