Well, for many reasons, Mike and I are tightening the belt, and being creative with the resources God blesses us with. I am a big advocate of using what you have, buying used and not getting something because it is the newest or just because you want it. God is steadily delivering us, form poor financial choices within our control and hard circumstances outside of our control. Now we want to be faithful to both save and be generous to those who need it. We are coming into a new season on many fronts, but one of the ear marks of this time, will be how we learn to save and control our spending.

So, I am cleaning out and organizing our closets (again) and getting ready for school this week. Some how or another, I always find something I can list on eBay. So this week I am listing 4 or 5 things and also going through clothes. Not to donate but to scavenge from. I grabbed these bottons from an unused shirt and will turn the body of the shirt into interfacing for something else I am making.

I enjoy sewing and hate going to the fabric store with the kids, so I have given myself a new challenge. What can I make that is new from something I already have lying around. So I am creating “out of thin air” and excited. Look at how this women turned her old t-shirts into cute baby clothes. I need a wallet as I don’t have one, so I am going to make this one.

Pray for me!

Goodness - you hear the left say “It is the end of the world.” and you hear the right say, “Oh come on, the earth goes through natural warming and cooling cycles. This is all normal stuff.”

I respectfully say, “BS people!” To those lefties out there, I submit that “God is in control of when it is the end of the world, so pipe down.” and for all you conservative righties out there “Your smokin’ the good stuff, if you actually think that we don’t need to consider the way we live and how it affects the earth.”

We try and make little choices to recycle and live simply and sustainable. We have a long way to go. We have a lot to learn. There is more we could do, but I am a firm believer in baby steps. It is not an “idol” in our families life but for us it is a stewardship issue. We are supposed to be good stewards…right? Being thankful and respectful for what we have and learning how to follow Jesus in it.

All I am saying people is, do your part. Be a part of Jesus’ redemptive message to the world, subversively. One day, the entire earth will be renewed, and not just humanity ether. All of it.

Here are a few tips:

• Recycle your junk. (Is it that hard to have 2 trash cans in your kitchen, one for trash and one for recyclable things?)
• Stop buying every new thing that comes down the pike. If you have last years version of the i-phone do you really need this years version?)
• Think locally-buy things grown in your area, try to buy green. (Better yet hand made - sorry folks you can’t get that at Wal-mart - I am really trying to figure out how to do this in our town, because for the life of me I am not sure where to find anything grown around here.)
• Think about how much you drive. Consolidate all of your errands on one day. (Gas prices may force us to think of this.)
• Start a composter - (It ain’t that hard, and your plants will thank you.)
• Start a garden, or a pot at least. Grow a few herbs, start small.
• Quit using paper plates and napkins. (I promise a few dishes and throwing some napkins into the wash wont kill you. Hey, make your kids do it! My Mom started this when we were teenagers and it kinda stuck with me.)
• Donate your unneeded items, to local charities that help those less fortunate then you. (I promise hording your junk does you no good. - God will provide for you - not holding on to that one little widget that you are sure you will need one day, although you have not needed it in the past 5 years.)
• Make it a game with your kids. Go through you whole house, and create a donate pile. Pray that God will show you who needs all of that unused stuff and then go give it to them.
• Shoot, sell some of that stuff on eBay and use the money to pay of your debt! If you don’t have debt, then give it away yo!
• Dang - we even have a few friends who have gone all vegan. Willingly giving something up for a deeper reason. We aren’t there yet, but hey people are thinking about it.
• If you eat meat/animal products, think about how it came to you. Was it humane?

Here is the deal, our kids are the ones who are going to have deal with all of this mess down the road. In the west what we buy, consume and throw away, day after day after day, affects more then just how many times you take out the trash. Here in the states, we have nice little land fills that hide our dirty little secrets. In many other underdeveloped countries around the world, they don’t. So it just sits all over the place, and you step over it, and you pick through it and you smell it, in some cases you live in it. I was thinking the other day, how most of the world, still lives in a type of poverty that was prevalent when Jesus walked the earth. What would it be like, if we sent missionaries around the world who could teach agriculture and sustainable farming, conservation, how to have clean water, safe trash removal and infuse it all with the redemptive message of the kingdom of God and I am not talking the Peace Core here. Better yet, what if I could be a missionary in my own context. What if I could actually make little choices in my life, that speak volumes about what I really think.

Just sayin’ is all~ I’ll tell you what we are doing in this vein tomorrow, well, after we do it ya know:-) Pray I follow through.

Peace to all~