“Live simply.  Love generously.  Care deeply.  Speak kindly… and leave the rest to God.”

~ Author Unknown

Please watch the following 3+ minute video. 

Doesn’t that describe most of us?  Well maybe not you but definitely me. 😛 We immediately begin checking out everyone’s coffee cup making sure no one got one better than the cup we picked.  We inspect our selected cup ensuring its equal with our own self perceptions of our stature.  We allow something as trivial as a coffee cup to have power over us in the same way, we allow our perceptions of ourselves and others to be based on where they live, what they wear or what they drive.

We sabotage our ability to fully enjoying the coffee by focusing on the cups.  Does the style or the ornateness of the cup make the coffee taste any better?  Savor the coffee not the cup.

It’s natural for us to want only the best for ourselves. This tendency combined with our desires to acquire our wants in addition to needs is the source of our stress and problems.  For example, we all want the best for our families, especially our children. 

We buy homes that need two incomes to afford, and we buy wants that demand our financial resources, time and energy to maintain them.  We involve our selves in so many outside activities and commitments that we have very little time for ourselves much less for our families. 

We meet our families physical needs and wants but leave their emotional and relationship needs unfulfilled.  Hopefully, we’ve already come to the realization we cannot replace relationship with things.  We must be able to find a balance between life itself and the trappings of life.

The idea of simple living appeals to many of us.  While some of us regard it as “doing without” or “having less.”  Less of what?  Would you object to having less stress, sickness or insecurity?

Getting to Simplicity

• Live humbly before your God
• Learn to live with what you need and within your means
• Find beauty, value, and worth all around you
• Do a good job at whatever you do
• Don’t try to be more or less than God’s design for you
• Love your family with all you are not all you can buy them
• Own what you actually need and make it simple to care for
• Keep an eternal focus
• Live like your camping this side of eternity, don’t take it too seriously and landscape it