N is for Necessity
Everyone has heard of the 12 Days of Christmas. I thought I would do my version of the 12 days of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving: the act of giving thanks; a prayer of gratitude to God.
Necessity: something that cannot be done without.
Lots of “N” words came to mind for today’s Twelve Days of Thanksgiving challenge. I decided to lounge on “necessity”. Our basic necessities are food, shelter, and clothing and then of course that need for companionship. God, Himself said, “It is not good that man should be alone”.
Obviously to write this I had to consider my own necessities and it became very convicting and difficult to write. It is always a challenge to look at something that is very comfortable and routine and make changes to it. How does that old saying go, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
Recently taking a look at our finances we recognized we are falling behind and need to take a look at areas where we can cut back. Our biggest expense is food. Not your typical “eating out” kind of expense. In fact, we have only eaten out once in the last two years and my BFF and her husband treated us in celebration of my birthday. Food is one of the difficult areas in our life that we have recently tried to change. I love to cook and my husband loves to eat what I cook. And although we don’t waste food (leftovers go in the freezer for another meal), some of the meals are a little more extravagant and mucho calories than we need as a regular meal plan. The past three weeks have been grueling but I am seeing a huge change in how much we need to buy at the grocery store. Changing from super sized quantity to single portion amount can make a big difference, not only on a waist line but in a wallet as well. Making these subtle changes I realize what cooking for necessity is and what greed is. We are blessed to have the luxury of not digging food out of a dumpster like some people do to survive.
Speaking of waist lines, clothing is another area of need verses greed. At one point in my life my closet was lined with 52 skirts, 28 pairs of jeans, 8 leather jackets, 3 wool coats and more pairs of shoes than I could count. It has taken five years, but I am down to 8 skirts, 8 pairs of jeans, 1 leather jacket and I am working on the shoes. I had a wicked shoe fetish. I have not bought clothes in over five years. I have found that if I wait long enough, the fad will come back and the jeans that were out of style eventually will be back in style. Going to the storage unit was kind of like going to the mall, (which I have not frequented since November, 2006). When I see people in third world countries that are wearing everything they own, it breaks my heart and I realize how spoiled I am. I know a friend of mine whose husband recently took on a challenge to clean out his closet and bureau and keep only 100 articles of clothing. I am seriously considering doing just that.
The storage unit was another luxury that we decided to cut out and use the expense toward something else. It was rough to part with items that we had not used in the past five years. Some items we did not want to part with, therefore we moved them into the small house that we rent. Our living area is a little overcrowded but still cozy. Better to be cozy and overcrowded than to be vacant and formal. We have been to houses like that…just not very inviting.
Shelter; the house we rent is 150 years old. It is not insulated so when the sun shines just right we can see the ground in the cracks of the wood floors in the bedroom. Slippers are very handy in the winter time but not a necessity. The cold floors in the morning tend to help with getting us motivated to move and start the day to keep warm. We do not have the typical heat or air that modern houses have so it isn’t like we can just turn the thermostat to 68º in the winter time and to 78º in the summer time. We chop, split and lug wood for a woodstove to heat the house in the winter time. Wood will warm you up three times over…try chopping, splitting and lugging and you will know exactly what I’m talking about. In the summer a window unit air conditioner cools the combo kitchen living room where we spend most of our time. The cool air is nice; however the electric bill that comes after running it for a few weeks is not as nice as the cool air. At least we have that option… it is not a cardboard box that some people find refuge in. Try to imagine a family of five living out of a cardboard box that once held a refrigerator.
Companionship: one that accompanies another. I know some people might argue that companionship is not a necessity. I beg to differ. God’s word tells us in the very first book of the Bible that it is not good that man should be alone. (Genesis 2:18) God made woman for man to be his helper. In our society men and women alike take this way out of context and turn it into something that they want it to be. This subject is a whole other blog to dig deeper into. Let’s just leave it at this: if you have been blessed to marry as a man and a woman do not take it for granted and treat each other as the king or queen that they are.
Food, clothing and shelter are the basic necessities of life that most people take for granted. I know I did and sometimes I still do. Things like electricity, indoor plumbing, running water and appliances are all luxury items. Items we can live without but choose not to. I just made a cup of tea with my tea kettle on my electric stove… luxury items. As I type on my antiquated laptop and wait for the lengthy upload for my internet connection I take into account that it is a lot slower and archaic where there is none.
I like to think that I have become frugal and have learned to give up a lot of the luxuries that I thought I needed before Christ took over my life. Things like make up and hair spray and curling irons and blow dryers were all things I thought I needed. I needed them because they helped me change the appearance of the person I saw every morning when I looked in the mirror. I didn’t like who I was so I covered her up. Once Christ got a hold of my heart He made me realize that all the Mary Kay and Avon in the world could change my outside appearance but it was not going to change the person inside. He was the only One who could make me into someone that I liked. It doesn’t matter what other people think. I like the person I see now and I realized that I don’t need to cover her up and make her into something she is not.
Need verses greed; an interesting concept. Internet, cell phones, computers, Laptops, IPods, I Pads, Notebooks, Kindles and so many other technological things that I can’t even begin to pronounce are all luxury items. How many vacations do you take a year? How many vehicles do you have sitting in your drive-way? How about boats and jet-skis and hot tubs and swimming pools and campers and motor-homes and dirt bikes and four-wheelers and snow mobiles? What is in your closet that you don’t wear? How many times do you go out to eat or stop for a coffee or a soda and a bag of chips a year, a month, a week, a day? What kinds of luxuries can you give up? Living down to our need instead of up to our greed can make a huge difference. Think about it.
© Crackerberries 2011
