Tired of Spending

I am so tired of spending money! It seems like every time that I turn around, I am spending money. It gets so old. I wish life were more simple but it seems like with all that we "need" and all that we have going on these days that there is always money being spent.

In the past three days, I have spent money on gas, milk, food (several times), hiking pants, hiking socks, scotch tape, face lotion, clothes for Anna, kids movie rental, kids books (from Goodwill), postage, and a Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen. And I know that I will probably be spending more money before the day is out. It is exhausting. When I look at that list, I see so many things that I didn't have to have but others that are there just to live in our culture. It is very hard trying to distinguish between needs and wants in our fast-paced, me-based society. I love all things that make life easy over the past however many thousands of years and at the same time long for something more simple than this culture that we have now.

I don't know if I am making any sense or not. I just know that I am sick of spending money. Maybe it just bothers me how fast it leaves me. Maybe it bothers me that I don't have enough to meet my "wants". Maybe it bothers me that I think I don't have enough to give away. Or maybe it is just a combination of all three. Not real sure. I just know that I would love to go 1 week without spending any money. I wonder if that is even possible in America in 2008? I want to honor Jesus in all of my money spending endeavors. I wonder if He is happy with the way I have spent His money in the past three days?

P.S. When you throw in the money that we spend as a church in addition to my personal spending, I get really sick of watching the money go out. It is all very tiring to me!