Tuesday, September 21, 2010

9 days...

Lately we have been challenged to think of what life could look like if it were simpler. Books, conversations, and the desire for a more meaningful life have brought us to these questions. What would we do with ourselves if we weren't frequenting the malls, or taste testing the newest Boston Pizza menu? Could we cut out shopping, and live Simply? What would THAT look like? We don't know but we have decided that this year we will find out.

A couple years ago we read an article about a family of 6 who lived on $35,000/year, you can read the article here. This inspired us, but not enough to launch us into action. Perhaps we were not ready or more likely not willing to make the necessary changes to live simpler.

This year a new friend of mine told me about a year long journey she took with her family of living a "compact life". They took a compact to take a year off of shopping. You can read about their experience here. Their experiment trigger more interest and inspiration in our lives but still not enough to push us out of our comfort zone.

I then read the book "Eat, Pray, Love" and was challenged to live a more disciplined life. Thinking of discipline, I picked up a book that I have read before "Celebration of Discipline" by Richard J. Foster and began to seriously consider a simpler life.

My husband was also on his own journey. Mounting external stresses and the realities of having a job relying on fundraising to get paid had begun to take its tole. He began to talk about the need to buckle down on spending and simplify life for the sake of our family. He was given the book "Freedom of Simplicity" to read. Funny, it is also by Richard J. Foster. We began to talk about what this Disciplined Simple Life might look like.

This is what our next year will look like:

Disciplined and Simple. We have decided to take a year off of shopping.

To take a year to separate needs from wants.
To learn to be creative and resourceful.
To make our relationships more meaningful.
To be generous with what we have been given.
To save money.
To be good stewards.
To grow in our faith.

It is our hope that as we tune out our desire to consume we will tune in our desire to be consumed by Christ. We hope that this experiment will remove distractions in our lives and allow us to live a more centered, meaningful, simpler life.

Feel free to follow us in our 365 day journey. We will begin in 9 days, October 1st.

3 comments:

  1. Wow...if anyone can do this we know you guys can. What a great challenge. Looking forward to hearing more about it. Maybe we will be challenged to join you in this. It sure made me stop and think. Love Mom

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  2. You should join us! even if it is for just a month or 6 months or whatever.

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  3. This is so inspirational to me! I'm so excited for you guys, and can't wait to see/hear all that God has in store for you on this journey.

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