Pondering Godly Stewardship this 2013

2012, in reflection, was a year of growing, changing habits and LEARNING. I used to hate learning...hehe...but now that the learning involves hands on techniques for saving money at home AND getting healthier in almost every aspect of life, I can not wait to do the same in 2013.
WELL, this post is mainly spurred on by another friend's post about how cloth diapering makes her a better Christian. And though she was mainly being sarcastic with that statement, her green-ness rings true about being a good steward with God's money in our homes, and our lives. Hehe, while I hear most of my friends, not on this food and habit changing journey, a resounding UGH. Right? Now, really, you should read her post, it is SO true in many ways other than just cloth diapering!!
http://onetechmom.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/why-cloth-diapers-make-me-a-better-christian/#comment-161
I love how she feels that the simple decision to cloth diaper put her and the family on a different path for everything...eating healthier, being less of a consumer and more of a creative home maker to save money and save resources, not just money resources, but space resources at home too! I also feel the same. Since having our baby girl, and choosing right away, emphatically to cloth diaper, due to keeping baby away from chemical burns and rashes, more than to save money, lol, this small deviation of consumer "thinking" got us pondering MANY other aspects of our lives too. What food we put into our bodies, and how it affects so much of our health and well being. The clothes that we wear, and the packaging used in our foods, and the needless things we buy on a monthly basis. The journey never seems to end...but it does always end UP in the same place. Simplify! Having less is so much easier, better, happier...it is a crazy struggle in this United States, to keep from having TOO MUCH. And yet, after learning about the HUGE amount of widows in Afghanistan yesterday, because of 30+ years of war, women have lost husbands, brothers and sons in most families, and they now struggle just to keep their children from starving since their main income creators are gone.
 WoW.
 Puts a new perspective on 2013 for me, even for just being more grateful for everything my husband does and IS for our family!!
AND, if you are in need of an inspirational story about two 9/11 widows, who in turn, raise money for the widows of Afghanistan, check this site out...it will surely make you smile and perhaps shed a tear!!
http://www.beyondthe11th.org/about.founders.php
Their awesome story is also on Netflix call "Beyond Belief". I don't care if they are Christians or not (the documentary never lets on if they are) but D-A-N-G, they did the most amazingly JESUS thing...reaching out to a country to understand what they could about the people of that nation instead of choosing to have been bitter and hateful about their lost husbands.
AWESOME. This is how we should live!!!
 SO, what is a Christian to do, to transform more into the active personage that we know God wants us to be, especially in comparison to our struggling brothers and sisters around the world?!  We are supposed to share in their struggles, and their grief. How can we do that beyond writing a check?  To BE better stewards of not only our money, but of this beautiful EARTH He has given us?
Not only becoming LESS of a consumer, and more of a steward with not just the money, but actually becoming more of a CHRISTIAN, and to pay true homage to the word, not using it as a title. What does that look like in the U.S.? Well, I know it is NOT what we are doing now. The church, we as the church, Christians, ARE FAILING. Our lives aren't any fuller or happier due to what we have. In fact, they are full of disease and dragging illness, depression, untimely death, and disabled family ties.
 SO. Now. What?
Our money matters. Dave Ramsey and the other Christian debt programs have taught us that much. We too are on the road to recovery and 2013 will be a debt freeing year for us. But it can't JUST be about debt freedom for us Christian Americans, to equal Godly living! Or about eating better, or about getting chemicals and dumb plastic toys and Tupperware out of our lives (btw, families who are healing their autistic kids are doing this...by switching to organic whole foods, ditching all processed foods, getting rid of AS MUCH plastic as they can in their homes, and all chemical cleaners and ALL commercial grooming products...and if this is healing autistic kids, wouldn't it be wise for us to do the same for our families, our kids, as well?)

And there is another issue, here in our "Christian" community that drives me emphatically NUTS. The Catholic church is the only church that truly supports the struggling mother who decides to keep her baby after being inundated with PP alternative info. The workers/volunteers at our local Pregnancy Care Center even say how hard it is to get our local "Christian" churches to help with ANYthing! WHAT is up with that?! With that said, PA-LEASE check out our local Pregnancy Care Center, they are busting at the seems and need as much financial and physical support as possible!!
http://hopecpc.org/

Well, I keep hearing about this book, RED LETTER REVOLUTION http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/red-letter-revolution-shane-claiborne/1111574858...a crazy book that actually says we should live like the red letters of Jesus, in the Bible. Things like, not having a retirement plan...scary? SO, I challenge you...read it with me, and let us each seek out ways that we can reach out, with our talents, loves, goals, to bless others!! Then, as we wade through and slowly get rid of the piles of stuff and the paradigms of Americanism we have accumulated over our lifetimes, to give more than we BUY at Target and other places of which I will not mention here (lol)...perhaps we can get a glimpse of a better, fuller, life. I know those of us who are parents-to-be and those of us in the trenches;] already know what it means to sacrifice...lol, that is what makes is so dang tough...sacrificing not only allll time and love, but giving to them more than we think of giving ourselves. It's easy, in the aspect that we love them. The hard part is doing this in other aspects of our life, for people we don't know or care about.

This year is going to be FULL of surprises, challenges, (which I LOVE;) and more hard lessons, good lessons on growing and learning. I just pray for more grace on my part. Now that I have learned to think like a hippy, AND enjoy it, its time to put a little more rubber to the road in terms of walking the Red Letters:]
But, that is what this year will be for, learning more about grace and how to always see things in that wonderfully beautiful light called God's Love!
I will leave you with a funny quote I saw on a magnet that I should have bought from New Frontiers:]
A Chef Says: There is a special trick that I do with low-fat and fat free foods...I throw them out. LOL
And hubby's wonderfully deep perspective on this: EAT NATURALLY!
hehe
ENJOY your food, but more importantly, enjoy your butter. Back in the day, 1890s and later, there was NO heart disease or obesisty to speak of, and they ate more animal fat AND 3 times as much fresh butter as we are told NOT to consume today...so eat your butter and enjoy your bacon;] Then go for a nice stroll, or hike:] hehe God is so good, He made these foods for us...so let us partake!! And then enjoy His outdoors with our children;] Till later lovelies!