My wife’s mother grew up in Mexico. Her mother’s husband deserted them. She had no job & had to leave her toddlers alone to look for work. They had practically no possessions & hardly anything to eat. On a good day for breakfast she’d get a tortilla with jalapeños & some coffee. Her younger sister would sometimes get a spoon to scrape dirt off the adobe walls to eat. Now THAT is dirt poor.
The family had no friends to help, & even the church didn’t do anything to help. They went to church on Christmas & Easter, but even then it was all in Latin, so she didn’t know the reason for Christmas-that it was Jesus’ birthday. For Christmas, the custom was to put one shoe outside the door to be filled with coins, gifts, & treats. But most years they would wake to find nothing in the shoes, & their mother crying because she had nothing to give her girls. One year when she was 5 & her sister was 3, she found her mother crying because she had only enough money to buy one old raggedy doll. It broke the big sister’s little heart, so she told her mother to put the doll in her sister’s shoe, while she received a single orange in her shoe.
A couple of years later when they came to the U.S., they still didn’t have a Christmas tree or anything. When she was 9, she learned the truth about Christmas. Later as an adult, she made her own decision to follow Christ & be baptized. About a decade ago she told me, “That’s why I like giving-it makes me feel so good. Nobody did it for me. I would have been happy to just have a hot meal. Now all the kids want, want, want. People have destroyed Christmas…turning it into just giving & getting presents…& it’s not about that.”
About a year & a half ago, I preached for my mother-in-law’s funeral. “…We brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world” (1 Timothy 6:7). This world is not home. We’re all just visitors here passing through. So why would you sink a lot of money into a motel room?
Living by Christian values is like a foreign language to most people-even church-attending people. Our culture is constantly enticing us with more, bigger & better, new & improved. But having lots of material wealth & constant splurging on pleasurable experiences doesn’t really satisfy because that’s not what God made us for.
How do we adopt an attitude of gratitude & generosity over greed?
1. Remember what God says about contentment.
Scripture, especially the teachings of Jesus on money & materialism, helps us to maintain a proper perspective.
2. Realize how much you already have.
Most of us are quite comfortable, even wealthy, by world standards. It’s easy to lose perspective when we focus on those who have more stuff than we do. The comparison game always turns you into a loser. It’s a trap that poisons you from enjoying the blessings you have. Instead of “keeping up with the Joneses,” spending time with those who have less will cure that spoiled attitude.
3. Simplify your lifestyle
We’re used to saying, “I need….” But really how much do we really “need?” Jesus had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20). The great missionary, E. Stanley Jones, who was sometimes called the “Billy Graham of India,” told about a poor man who had an overnight guest, & as he showed him to his humble bedroom in the hayloft he said, “if there’s anything you want, let us know, & we’ll come show you how to get along without it.”
4. Pray about it.
Confess your materialistic desires to the Lord, & ask for strength to restrain your consumerism. Seek guidance for making wise financial decisions. Before making a big purchase, have you prayed about it? In all those J.G. Wentworth commercials that offer “cash now” instead of waiting for long term settlement & annuity payments, he says: “It’s YOUR money. Use it when you need it.” But no money is really yours. It’s God’s. Since everything you have really belongs to Him, isn’t it only right that you consult the Owner about how He wants you to use it?