July 2014

Periodically, because it's good household management but usually because we're in a budget crunch, I go on a campaign to eat the food that we have. Those items that have gotten pushed to the back of the pantry or freezer. Anyone else have this issue? I consider it the fat corn years intended to supply the lean corn ears (see Genesis, the story of Joseph and Pharaoh), but just like the biblical story, it takes some creative management.

I'm going to keep a journal, hopefully during the entire month of July, of my own efforts to economize as I clean and organize my food. My journey is happening in 2014, a time when Americans waste about 25% of what we buy (see newsstory here). That's appalling, but it easy to do. When my culture fails this way, it pains me. When I am too lazy to eat the rest of the spaghetti sauce in my fridge, hey, what do you know about my life? Stay off my back.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Day 18: what you look at

Many years ago, I realized that I got two kinds of junk mail: catalogs/advertisements to buy things and informational letters/magazines about missions, both local and overseas. I found that I took time to peruse the catalogs and flyers looking for sales, things I might want, and I would ditch the letters.

At some point, I consciously chose to reverse how I spent my time. It is uplifting for me to see what God and His people are doing in the world--it's like an antidote to the evening news. And the catalogs? Companies were randomly sending me their publications, and I was wandering into their store, giving them my time just because they showed up in my mailbox.

I shouldn't budget my time based on who rings my doorbell.

But looking through catalogs (or these days, browsing a website just because JCP sent you a link or Google threw a scheming ad into your browser margin) doesn't just eat up my time: it eats up my heart. Our hearts are designed to want things. When we spend our time showing our heart things to buy, it will want to buy things. When we spend our time showing our hearts what Christians are doing around the world, our hearts will want to join, to help, to give.

The same is true with my pantry. If I spend time looking through recipes online, browsing cookbooks, shopping at Walmart or Williams Sonoma, I will want to buy things for my kitchen. I will see possibilities out there, with a price tag, to make my family happy and healthy and well fed.

However, when I keep my gaze at home, looking through cabinets and freezer shelves, I can seek ways to feed and entertain my family without the price tag. The things in my own shelves are already an investment of my money: I should use it well. It is very tempting for me to be always spending money on food because food is essential. How could I be wasting money on something that is essential?

Commercials and websites will even tell me I am being frugal. I can buy a feeling of frugality! Only in America...

Titus, a short letter in the Bible, tells older women that they should teach younger women. My translation says to "urge" younger women to do a certain list of things, including "be busy at home" (Titus 2:4-5). Women, even in the first century AD, without billions of shekels being spent on advertising, had to be urged to be busy at home.

It is natural for us to be busy online, or busy at the mall. Today, I am urging myself to be busy at home.

Which is as easy as shifting your time and your eyesight. Get off the cooking websites and look in the cabinets. Make a list of things to use at home instead of just a list of things to buy. Desire a system for keeping the freezer organized instead of creating a wish list on Amazon.

What you look at will feed your heart.
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