Simplify

This article posted over at Raising Homemakers.
Simplify.
We've all heard the phrase "less is more", and I'm learning how true that phrase really is the more I simplify our home. Over the past year we have downgraded our cable to the most basic package (just for the news and weather), sold the Wii, and have cleaned out everything we don't use, have outgrown, and dont really need. Our children now have more books than toys and are much more happier. I have found that my children are less overwhelmed and alot more creative than ever since we've simplified. My daughter has been writing songs, poems, drawing more pictures, and even reading books (she's always hated reading). My son has been spending more time outside exploring and learning the different types of birds by observing their feathers. I no longer hear the phrase "I'm bored", now that we got rid of all the video games and most of the toys. My daughter actually works on her homeschooling for FUN! Simplifying our home has also made it alot easier to keep up with the house. Less stuff= less cleaning. I truly believe that God blesses us so we can be a blessing to others. There is no greater feeling than to be able to give our over abundance of things to someone who needs it. I think of the following verses when I think of simplifying-

Luke 12:15-21
15 And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.” 16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Notice verse 18, I will build BIGGER barns....
Isn't that what we do? We build BIGGER houses so we can store all of our stuff. Our treasure is not here, but in Heaven.

In America we work 2 jobs, longer hours, just so we can have more things. We sacrifice our health, our families, our time, our very life for things. We dont even have the time to be able to even enjoy the stuff we're working for! What if we could be satisfied with what we already have? What if we chose to have grateful hearts instead of greedy hearts?

I challenge you to think of all the ways you can simplify. A less busy schedule, less stuff, less t.v. time, less computer time, and then spend more time with God and your family.
Let's learn to be content with what we have. (Hebrews 13:5)

I'll end with a few good quotes I found on simplifying-

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. ~Elise Boulding

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
~Robert Louis Stevenson