What I learned while cleaning out my fridge!

     I know it sounds like a crazy place to have an AHA moment, but it truly was a revealing experience for me.  As if it isn't repulsive enough to dump out container after container of moldy food, I found myself being repulsed on an even deeper level.    
     This lesson God is trying to teach me goes back to a conversation I was having the night before with some people at a party.  We were talking about the things we see in our children that we don't like: such as their laziness, selfishness, and spoiled attitudes.  My personal take away from that conversation was simply this: my children our a reflection of me.  If they are lazy, selfish, or spoiled it is because I haven't trained it out of them yet.  Even more repulsive is to think that they have learned those character traits from me.
     What I hated most about cleaning out my fridge is to see how wasteful I am.  There are thousands of people around the world literally starving to death and I have a fridge overflowing with rotting food.  This problem I have actually comes from a blessing.  I have more than enough!
     I can afford to be wasteful with my food because I have more than enough.  I wish my wasteful ways stopped there but they don't.  I am wasteful with my time, because I have more than enough.  I am wasteful with my money, because I have more than enough.  Obviously I don't want to become poor in those things, so that out of necessity I would better use my resources.  No, I am very thankful to have more than enough.
     I want to live a grateful, generous, resourceful life.  I want to train my children to live likewise, but I find it so challenging in our American culture.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7 (the Message) "Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you.  This world as you see is on its way out."
     Everywhere you turn this world is trying to thrust wasteful ways upon us.  We tend to buy into the lie that having more stuff will make us happy.  Solomon is such a great example of the faultiness of this way of thinking.  He had everything a man could ever wish for but was still empty.
     In about 6 weeks I get to go to El Salvador on a missions trip.  I am so excited, because leaving America is such a stark reminder of the mountain of blessings that I live on.  It is such a wake call to me of how numb I have become to being surrounded by "more than enough."
     This lesson I am learning is challenging me to do several things: (which I would challenge you to consider)
        To constantly tell God and others how grateful I am for my blessed life
        To ask myself before I buy anything, "Do I really need this?"
        To consistently look for ways to take the extra I have to bless someone else
        To look for practical ways to live out Paul's challenge to "live as free of complications as possible."