“The glory of the impossible”   Amy Carmichael- a word slipped to me from Emily.

A word of warning- my blog is about to get really incoherent.

Thanksgiving is our holiday, it’s when our calendar begins. So with Thanksgiving comes reflection of the last year. This year has been a breathtaker. God has shown me so much through Josiah. It has been a year of intense self examination, of casting all else aside to renew myself with what the Lord has to say about sin, family, biblical womanhood, the blessing of children, widows & orphans, the poor, holiness. I don’t have to really look far. We have a record before us of exactly what God says of these things. So…. How then should we live?

I have been so burdened lately by this question and the futility of modern American consumerism. What a sad thing to live for the next cool cell phone, especially since another, cooler phone will come on the scene before we even get it fully charged. But how to break away? I need a shrugging emotican here.

I’ve been reading a really helpful book related to current struggles. Respectable Sins-confronting the sins we tolerate by Jerry Bridges. It is pretty easy reading as far as the language goes but the message has been very powerful and convicting especially in light of what Pastor John has been preaching on. Highly recommend it & don’t just read it but take it slow and reflect on the passages of scripture. I plan to ask Les if we can go through it during our family worship time.

Speaking of what God says- Debt. It’s not good. Trust me. This year we plan to really work hard to pay off 30K of debt. I know it sounds crazy but Les pointed out that this past year his income was way down and we managed to pay off a good chunk of debt and adopt Josiah. It will be exciting to see what the Lord will do. Debt really does make you a slave-and the debt is, for us, sinful. We feel really convicted that this area of our life is limiting our usefulness in the kingdom and bringing dishonor to the Lord.

I ran across this site last night- JUNKY CAR CLUB living with less so we can give more don’t hold me responsible for the content ( I didn’t read it all) but the concept really appeals to me.

A few things we are doing to get started living with less-

We cut the power to one of the hot water heaters (shocking, I know. You should have seen the reponse I got to that one)

We crammed all the meat and produce into one freezer today so we could unplug the other two. Look out if you open the door, I got slammed with frozen solid, Zion Farms chicken this morning.

We put up a clothes line.

We turned our phone off. We never used our landline much anyway. Wow, the phone company will offer you the moon to keep you from doing this. You can get us on our cells.

Les cut the grocery budget. DRASTICALLY. Beans & rice coming right up!

Cutting down on gas. The kids might revolt at this one. We have one car & I have to take Les to work sometimes so we can go to church functions. That’s alot of extra gas.

More coming. Pray for us. The flesh is weak. Really weak.

So this years to do list.

1) Pay off all non-Mercy debt

2) Bring home our next two children (opps, did I say that out loud?)

Sound impossible? Nah, just difficult.

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God: first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.”

Hudson Taylor