Gluttons of Stuff

A couple days ago, my wife and I lived very comfortable lives. We have food in our stomach's and a nice house in a nice neighborhood. Needless to say, our house is full of nice "things." And if you were to ask me if I needed or wanted any other things, I would probably have to think really hard, and possibly for a long time on any new addition to my house. Then there was Christmas. And the next couple of days, I spent a great deal of time unloading the car and filling up my living room before sorting through, unpacking, and to finding appropriate places for all our new things. So I guess if we were very comfortable before Christmas, now we are "completely comfortable," "incredibly comfortable..." I am not sure what the adjective is that describes my families wealth and comfort level, but you get the point.

This probably makes me sound ungrateful and unappreciative, which is far from reality. I am truly grateful for the thoughtful presents my family and I have received. I am continually amazed by the generosity of our families and our friends and wonder whether or not I share as openly as they do. My generosity, or lack there of, is for another post, today I want to express how deep down our roots are in materialism, greed, and gluttony are.

I recognize that I am on a path that leads to more questions than answers. I am sure there are many different opinions in how to diagnose and treat this problem. Others might call this problem, sin and then there are others that would question that it is even a problem.

So because I have no answers, I will leave my questions.

-Do I want to be treated for this problem?

-Is this a issue of the heart?

-Is the my culture that forces me to live like this?

-Is it because of my socioeconomic status that I live like this?

-Am I celebrating an American holiday, rather than the birth of my Savior?

-How can I have a non-materialistic, glutton free Christmas?

6 Days til Christmas

So today is Sunday and we are six days and counting... yes we are counting. With the chance that some of you will not be able to be in Sunday School with us today, I decided that I should keep you in the loop and send out my daily email anyway. Sunday is going to be the day of giving. I know that Christmas day is usually the big day for giving, but this year Christmas is not a day it is a season. As we prepare ourselves for the one day, we decided that we should prepare our hearts and our minds by being generous in our giving. Giving... although it usually begins and ends with material stuff and the giving of things, hopefully this year we can give a little more. Today think about giving. We are going to discuss this in Sunday school. I don't have all the answers so I hope the group will provide them at some point. Here are some of the key topics we'll be discussing.
~Giving to God
~Giving Knowledge
~Giving Gifts like Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.
~Giving Gifts like Peace, Forgiveness, Discipline...
~Giving Time
~Giving Money
~Giving Service
~Giving Tithes & Offerings (different from Money)
~Giving Yourself
~Giving Thanks
~ The opposite of giving (taking... or greed)


Proverbs 11:24
One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

1 Chronicles 16:34
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Proverbs 15: 27
The greedy bring ruin to their households...