Ain't NOBODY need More Stuff

It's a phrase I'm fond of saying.  Especially around Christmas and March and June.  Those are the times of year people with wonderful intentions and giving hearts ask me the most dreaded of questions:  "What would (insert child's name) like as a gift?"

And I want to scream "NOTHING!!  THEY DON'T WANT ANYTHING!!  THEY DON'T APPRECIATE THE THINGS THEY HAVE NOW!!!"

Now, the above statement is not totally true.  My kids do want anything.  I was going to type "something" but then realized "anything" is more accurate.  I have one child in particular who will see some bright shiny gizmo and say " I want that!"  to which I reply "Do you know what it is?"  And the answer is "No, but I want it."

Seriously?  Did these people really come out of my body?  Why are they so different from me?!

Except they aren't.  It's just that the stuff they want is cheap junk.  And the things I want are...expensive junk.

I have this sign hanging in our kitchen:

Jesus says something along the same lines, just not as flowery.  Cut and dry for people like me: "Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

If I want my children to not follow the greedy American culture of more, MORE, MORE, I better be paving the way.

Enter this book:

Sorry about the sideways, again.  Maybe some day technology and I will be friends, but not today.

After my last blog post, a friend recommended this book to me and then was so kind as to borrow it from her church library and drop it off at my house.  Wow!

After reading the first page I wanted to cancel the rest of my life so I could stay in my chair and read.  Seriously, Jen Hatmaker is one amazing author.  Hilarious (like I'm seriously laughing out loud.  My 3 year old keeps asking me what's so funny) and deep.  I'm in love with her.  If Ann Voskamp and Jen Hatmaker had a baby, I'd want to be that child.

Anyway, if you turned your head sideways to read my picture then you know the title of this book is "7: an experimental mutiny against excess".  I love those words.  

"Mutiny" especially.  

I feel mutinous a lot.  So I'm not even past the cover and I want to memorize the whole book.

To try to sum it up (I'm terrible at summing things up, by the way) Jen basically took 7 areas of her life and mutinied against the excess that Americans take for granted as our right.  One mutiny each month.  And she recorded her real, honest, raw feelings. 

That's another thing I love and am striving for in my life:  real, honest, raw.  My friend Melissa recently started a blog and wrote a wonderful post about real, honest, and raw.  Her bravery is inspiring!

Back to 7 and mutiny.  I'm going to bully talk my family into taking the plunge and fight the excess in our lives.  I will probably do some twists on what Jen did during her experiment but I am excited to begin.  And I'm sure it will make for some hilarious and thought provoking blog posts.

Stay tuned.