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Our Life, Our Choices

My husband and I choose to live a very simple life. In our minds we do not have a lot of worldly, material things our vehicles are not brand new and our house is very average, our kids do not have all of the latest and greatest toys, our clothes are not name brand and we are not wealthy according to the world's standards but we are happy and consider ourselves extremely blessed; we do not go to bed hungry at night and there are not holes in the floor of our house, our vehicles are nice and they get us from here to there, our kids have more toys than I would like for them to have, our closets are full of clothes and our bills always get paid. We pray and we laugh and we love unconditionally and we forgive, we give what we can when we can and sometimes even when we can't we still give.

Some people look at the way we choose to live and question it. Some people wonder why I want to be a stay at home mom, why don't I go get a job and help provide for my family, why don't we want what everyone else has, why don't we want more stuff. 1 John 2:15-17 (NLT) says

Do Not Love This World

15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

This is how my husband and I have chosen to live out our lives and to raise our children in hopes that they will also live in this way. We did not always choose this life style. We got married very young and did not have our first child for many years so we liked to go and buy and spend but then we were blessed with our first born and our lives changed (we think for the better).

We became unhappy with our lifestyle and I was not happy being a working mom and we spent many months in prayer, asking God what He wanted for our new family, if it was His will for us to continue living this life and me to continue being a working mom or not. When our daughter was 18 months old my husband and I agreed, together, that we were not walking the path that God wanted us to be on so I gave my two weeks notice at work. Many of our friends and even some family questioned and ridiculed our decision but immediately we both felt a sense of peace and of fear all at once. We stepped out on a cloud of faith and the only safety net we had was the hands of God. That was almost 8 years ago, we have added two more kids and zero regrets and God has yet to leave us or forsake us. We have had our "Peter" moments, when we have taken our eyes off of Jesus and yes, we did begin to sink but as soon as we whispered His sweet name, "Jesus", He swept us up and dried us off and said "Try again my beloveds" and that's exactly what we have done and done and done again and will continue to do until the day He carries us to our forever home. 

There are still times and season's that others question our choices. I will admit, it makes me very, very angry and there are some that it is very hurtful coming from, especially when it happens on a daily basis. We are not perfect, we do not live as if we are and we will not ever claim to be, we do not always make wise choices with our money or our kids or our marriage but I guarantee you that we PRAY, PRAY, PRAY before we make any kind of decision especially ones that are life changing!! We have come to a point in our individual lives, our marriage and our family that we are not here to please anyone on this earth, if it is not something that we know without a shadow of a doubt that it is not in the will of God then we are not going to do it. If we make a choice and our family, friends or anyone else doesn't like it then I'm sorry but unless your name is GOD we are not here to please you. We do not need or want your opinion so please do not voice it to one of us or any one else and honestly it's really not your business anyway!!!

God is our focus and our desire. All we want for ourselves, our kids and even our family and friends is to lay down your own needs, wants and desires at the foot of the cross and let God do the rest. I promise you will be amazed and forever changed when you do this on a daily basis. And I will also guarantee if you do it whole-heartedly God will not leave you or forsake you either!!

I want to leave you with a promise from God,  Take delight (aligning with the Lord's way in order to enjoy Him) in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Psalm 37:4-7 NLT

God bless,
Denissa

***Please do not misunderstand my words, if God has blessed you with a lifestyle to be able to have a lot of stuff then that is great and I am genuinely happy for you but I want everyone to understand that we do not need to live that way just because someone else does or says that we should!***

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 29, 2012 at 4:44 PM

    Great post.....I love your boldness.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beverly ShortesMay 30, 2012 at 4:48 PM

    Amen! I loved this post! Love you Denissa!!

    ReplyDelete

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