Stuff
We spend a lot of time thinking about our stuff. Paying off our stuff, repairing our stuff, watching our kids break our stuff, updating our stuff. Stuff takes a lot of our time and energy, thoughts and finances. We get proud of our stuff, and want to show it off on Facebook. Its an important part of life.
When our family moved to Bolivia, we started all over with stuff, only coming here with what we could fit in 10 suitcases and 5 carry ons. So, pretty much clothes, a few blankets, and kitchen ware. Like any good American, we started buying more stuff. A blender, TV, stereo, beds, couches, a rug, table and chairs, fridge, and microwave, and so on. I was excited about all the "new stuff" ten months ago, but now with three kids (one I half-jokingly call "the destroyer") and teens in our home all the time, our stuff is no longer like new. Some of it has been thrown away after being broken beyond repair. Lola actually broke a chair to our dining room table one day! (She was leaning in it, fell back, and one of the wooden legs broke in two.) Our couch cushions are piled up on the floor every weekend for teens that come over to play the wii, watch movies, and hang out with our family. Therefore, the shapes of the cushions aren't quite right and they are gradually getting stains.
As a mom, I spend a lot of my time flustered over how my kids care (or don't care) about stuff. I probably mention it to at least on of them everyday. But tonight, I am reminded of something someone told me many years ago. I was babysitting two twin babies in their new home their family moved into weeks ago. We were outside for an hour or so, and when I opened the front door, I found that a pipe behind their fridge busted and was spewing water all over the kitchen and dining room's wood floor and even soaking the new carpet in the living room. I panicked and called the mom. When she got home, she encouraged me by saying, "Its just stuff, Ashley. Its not eternal." I need to remember that now.
Too much of my day is spent thinking about stuff, when the people around me are the ones I should be thinking about, praying about, and sharing Christ with. God has blessed me with three amazing little Powells, but I don't want them to remember growing up how much I worried about our stuff, but that I loved them and showed them Christ. And, I'm pretty sure I can't find one place in the Bible where Jesus was worried about stuff...in fact, he made it clear that our stuff shouldn't be our focus.
1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." And Mathew 6:19-21, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Its time to refocus, and make my goal each day to know, honor, and share Christ with those around me. Some days that can be really challenging, especially when I can't get the words right to communicate things in Spanish. But, I am making it my aim, and fortunately, we can show much love through actions and service. And next time something is broken or damaged, I pray that God will remind me that its just stuff, and its not eternal.
What eternal things do I need to set my attention on? Are there souls God has put in my path to share the gospel with and cry out to Him by name for their salvation? Should I be praising God for all His many blessings that can not be broken or taken away? His peace, his joy, his presence, his salvation...
Looking for a more eternal perspective today...
When our family moved to Bolivia, we started all over with stuff, only coming here with what we could fit in 10 suitcases and 5 carry ons. So, pretty much clothes, a few blankets, and kitchen ware. Like any good American, we started buying more stuff. A blender, TV, stereo, beds, couches, a rug, table and chairs, fridge, and microwave, and so on. I was excited about all the "new stuff" ten months ago, but now with three kids (one I half-jokingly call "the destroyer") and teens in our home all the time, our stuff is no longer like new. Some of it has been thrown away after being broken beyond repair. Lola actually broke a chair to our dining room table one day! (She was leaning in it, fell back, and one of the wooden legs broke in two.) Our couch cushions are piled up on the floor every weekend for teens that come over to play the wii, watch movies, and hang out with our family. Therefore, the shapes of the cushions aren't quite right and they are gradually getting stains.
*A doll Lola got for Christmas, that now is a quadriplegic.
As a mom, I spend a lot of my time flustered over how my kids care (or don't care) about stuff. I probably mention it to at least on of them everyday. But tonight, I am reminded of something someone told me many years ago. I was babysitting two twin babies in their new home their family moved into weeks ago. We were outside for an hour or so, and when I opened the front door, I found that a pipe behind their fridge busted and was spewing water all over the kitchen and dining room's wood floor and even soaking the new carpet in the living room. I panicked and called the mom. When she got home, she encouraged me by saying, "Its just stuff, Ashley. Its not eternal." I need to remember that now.
Too much of my day is spent thinking about stuff, when the people around me are the ones I should be thinking about, praying about, and sharing Christ with. God has blessed me with three amazing little Powells, but I don't want them to remember growing up how much I worried about our stuff, but that I loved them and showed them Christ. And, I'm pretty sure I can't find one place in the Bible where Jesus was worried about stuff...in fact, he made it clear that our stuff shouldn't be our focus.
1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." And Mathew 6:19-21, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Its time to refocus, and make my goal each day to know, honor, and share Christ with those around me. Some days that can be really challenging, especially when I can't get the words right to communicate things in Spanish. But, I am making it my aim, and fortunately, we can show much love through actions and service. And next time something is broken or damaged, I pray that God will remind me that its just stuff, and its not eternal.
What eternal things do I need to set my attention on? Are there souls God has put in my path to share the gospel with and cry out to Him by name for their salvation? Should I be praising God for all His many blessings that can not be broken or taken away? His peace, his joy, his presence, his salvation...
Looking for a more eternal perspective today...
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