Our Neighbor

This lives next door!

It is over 20 years old.

It weighs over 80lbs.

It took Aidan a good 15 minutes to warm up to this.

Pretty cool neighbor.

Birthdays!

Happy Birthday my little monkeys!

We celebrated Asher and Aidan's Birthday last weekend.

The weather was perfect! We had a water slide, pizza and decorated cupcakes.

Asher turned 9 in March, and Aidan will be 7 in June.

Sprinkles!

These 2 cuties really bonded at the candy station! :)

Love Ellie's saggy butt! Her daddy forgot her suit, so she borrowed Autumn's.

Cupcake decorating was a blast!

Spiritual Discipline of Simplicity

God made man simple; man's complex problems are of his own devising. (Eccles. 7:30)

Here are some excerpts from the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. These words have really got me thinking, as you read in my last post.

"We are trapped in a maze of competing attachments. One moment we make decisions on the basis of sound reason and the next moment out of our fear of what others will think of us. We have no unity or focus around which our lives are oriented. Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us to an insane attachment to things. We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like. We are made to feel ashamed to wear clothes or drive cars until they are worn out. It is time we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick.

This psychosis permeates even our mythology. The modern hero is the poor boy who purposefully becomes rich rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor.

Covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call prudence. Greed we call industry.

Seeking first God's Kingdom and the righteousness, both personal and social, of that kingdom is the only thing that can be central in the Discipline of simplicity.

The person who does not seek the kingdom first does not seek it at all.

Stop trying to impress people with your clothes (stuff) and impress them with your life!"

All this being said, I am not going to be a freak and burn my clothes and start shopping in trash cans. I am a passionate person, and I'd be lying if I didn't say it actually crossed my mind. I believe the key here, and what has convicted me, is the amount of stuff I have! I am constantly doing loads of laundry because we have too much stuff. I have too much, and even worse, I am teaching my kids they need a lot of stuff. I don't want them to think their value is in their stuff. I don't want them to think joy comes from having things.

I guess it's time for a little spring cleaning in the Boulton home, and a really big garage sale!

Some stuff I'm wrestling with!

Over the past few months God has been showing me consumerism through His eyes. The economy has put a lot of people in financially difficult situations, and our family is no exception. But is it the economy, that did this to us all or is it our own greed?

God has just been wrecking my heart for the poor, and the orphaned. He has been showing me how I have allowed myself to be distracted by the consumerism that is destroying our world. I am guilty! I am a total label whore! I love expensive jeans, and nice purses, and I love shoes! In fact if you looked in my closet you would see that I love these things more than I love God. That makes me want to vomit just writing it! Now I would never say that (although I just did) but the way in which I'm living my life speaks for itself. I don't buy clothes intending to ever wear them out, do you? I have 3 boys and they don't even wear out most of their clothes. I am creating little consumers.

So there you have my public confession, but the reason I'm posting this is maybe you will relate, and

maybe you will ask God what He wants you to do about it.

FACTS TO CONSIDER

1. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.

2. According to UNICEF, 24,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”

3. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%:

For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.

If your annual income is $50,000 than you arethe 59,029,289 richest person in the world!

You're in the TOP 0.98% richest people in the world!

Check out www.Globalrichlist.com

Please consider everything you just read. You are not poor if you have shoes, running water, or electricity!

How are you going to bless God with the abundance HE has given you?