The road

I am not a spontanious person, which my husband can attest to.  I like a plan, and I like to stick to the plan.  Knowing that about me, you can assume that I didn't come to this decision to refrain from spending money on clothes as quickly or as easily as what my first post implied.

God has been working on my heart for awhile now.

The first seed was planted in church.  We have been listening to a series based on the book of Ecclesiastes.  Wow.  Every week I sit in church and listen to the wisdom our pastors have to bestow upon us I feel like they are shooting arrows right at me with every word they speak.  Wait, let me try that again...I feel like God is shooting sharp arrows at the core of my being with each word He has given them to say.  No really, it has been that powerful!

Here are a few verses we read couple weeks ago that shot right to my heart:

"As goods increase,
  so do those who consume them.
 And what benefit are they to the owner
  except to feast his eyes on them?
Naked a man comes from his mother's womb,
  and as he comes, so he departs.
 He takes nothing from his labor
  that he can carry in his hand."
-Ecclesiastes 5:11 & 15


The next place God spoke to me was through my Grandma Eekhoff.  She is 89.

She was in Pella for about a week a month ago while she battled a stomach infection.  If I was going somewhere for a week, I would require 1 very large suitcase to put all my necessities in...clothes(perhaps more than one outfit per day...just in case the first one packed for that day didn't "feel" right), shoes, toiletries, undergarments, cell phone charger, swimsuits, walking clothes(which is different than regular clothes), jackets(you need more than one, in case it is raining, or starts snowing), and pajamas.  You get the point.

She packed one little suitcase which contained 2-3 outfits, pajamas, and perhaps a toothbrush.

She lives a simple life.  A content life.


And then there was this comment from my son, which he seemed to say about once a week.

"I am out of hangers again"

That isn't because the hangers were getting taken from his closet, but rather due to the fact that I kept buying things to fill them with.  Perhaps too many things.


And then I read chapter 2 of Lysa TerKeurst's book entitled What Happens When Women Say Yes to God.

She wrote:

"God's Word is the language the Holy Spirit uses to help us understand what God is speaking to our hearts.  We must get into God's Word and let God's Word get into us."

And I knew what God was leading me to do.


All of the things around me were leading me to make this change, even if only for 6 months, so that my eyes will be opened.  You see, God had been orchestrating my life so that all these pieces would line up, and confirm what He was asking me to do.

You might choose to take this challenge with me, or you might choose not to, and I will not judge you for that either way.  I just know that when God asks me to walk down a road, I want to follow Him down it.


Please note that I was not an English major in college.  In fact, a lot of the papers I wrote came back with a lot of red marks on them.  So I am doing my best to underline what needs to be and put quotes around what needs them, but honestly, I graduated from college 11 years ago and have had 4 kids since then, and underlines and italics and quotations confuse me.