Been thinking about this for a few days now. I suppose Spring Harvest has really pricked my conscience and made me start to question things that I took for granted. I am so aware that whilst I try to be a good disciple of Christ (bet I sound like a religious nut now to those of you who do not actually know me! lol) I just do not meet the measure really, but like anything that is Ok as long as I really am trying my best and praying for help. I think I can be honest here though and say that I have probably not tried my best on many issues in the past.
I find that my conscience is getting louder and louder and small things that I took for granted before are now no no's, as I just can't shake the guilt if I do them. It is hard work this being a Christian lark!
Anyway back to stewardship, if you are not sure what I mean the Cambridge dictionary says a steward is "a person whose job it is to organize a particular event, or to provide services to particular people, or to take care of a particular place". So my understadning of Christian stewardship is that it is each of our responsibility to look after the earth and its people, as well as the money, family and posessions that God has kindly provided for us.
This wittering came about as I have just watched Goks fashion fix on TV and his new slogan is "buy less, wear more" and boy would I like to meet him so he could chuck out my wardrobe and do me one of those lovely capsule wardrobes with just 24 pieces, how simple would life feel? I guesstimate that currently I probably have in excess fo 300 items of clothing - without counting underwear, nightwear etc. Isn't that shocking? Who needs that amount of clothes - absolutley no-one. Some of it is about stuff I have bought to feel better and never did and much of it felt like bargains at the time and so was not! How much money have I wasted?
It seems to me that the more we get, the more we want and the more complex things feel and the harder decisions are to make. None of this fits in with the Christian way of life, hence I must think about changing. Hopefully OA will be a start towards this and to be honest I feel as if I am on the way to making some mental changes anyway. I have been doing so much thinking just recently.
Dh has a study aid at the moment called Simplicity, love and justice and it looks great, I will have a look once I finish the 4 books I have on the go at the moment! It talks about when there is so much injustice and poverty in the world how can we in the western world be thinking about spending more and just collecting things for the sake of it - so true!
Right better leave on that note and have some lunch before my beautiful babes wake up. Planning to clean the garden toys with the kids after I collect JJ from school. It is such a lovely day it does not matter if they get a tad wet.
