Thursday, May 1, 2008

Dying to Self

So did the title of this message make you cringe, or did you think, "I can do that"?? Well, I was one who always thought, "I can die to self, for God." As a matter of fact, I was sure that I constantly died to self for God. Until last night, that is.....

So here we are on our journey to Financial Freedom and I know that this will require me to die to self in some areas relating to finances. I actually think now that we're on week 4 of our study that I am fully dead to self in this area. But, last night we had to make up a budget. A spending budget. We are doing this to ensure that we can pay off any consumer debts, both personal and business, that we may have. All in the name of obedience to God's word. Well, we came to the part of the budget that would require me to "cut back" on some spending. Now, I was fully prepared to put off most major purchases in order to become debt free. But when my husband decided that I should stop eating out, something inside of me SNAPPED! I started crying and continued into the wee hours of the morning. If you know me you know that I am not very outwardly emotional so this was way out of character for me.

Being that my husband is of the male species he wasn't very compassionate about it nor did he see my side of things at all! So there I was by myself crying over not eating out for a few months. I'll have to admit that this has sent me soul searching. Why would such a small thing have had the power to upset me SO MUCH?????

I think that first of all, I didn't realize the power position I had given money in my life. With 6 kids to tend to 24/7 I had also been drawing a huge amount of comfort from occasionally eating out. I called it, "getting a break for mom". Eating out is one of my favorite things to do. So when you put something on that kind of a pedastool in your life you're actually making it an idol. So there it was, I had made eating out an idol in my life and I never even realized it. Well, God is so precious to me. I am thankful that He will be faithful to point out idols in our lives. Since this was an idol I was unknowingly breaking a commandment, thou shalt have no other gods before me. OUCH!

So, I feel like I'm in mourning a little today. I even spoke with a few close friends this morning, just looking for sympathy. Now my prayer is that I will be able to truly lay this idol on the altar. After all, there really should NOT be anything more comforting in my life than drawing near to God. So, as I am becoming even more structured in my days (planning for all meals) I am ever more aware of God's precious comfort and presence in my life. He is teaching me to lean fully on Him when I need a break. Finding comfort in Him is the place where I want to be. Again, it's totally FREE (fat free and financially free!).

So, if you're thinking that you don't have any idols in your life, pray and ask God to show you where they are. You will probably be blown away at the idols that you never knew existed. Being free in God is a truly fulfilling place to be. So for now I'll take my comfort in His presence, until the next change surfaces. Hopefully I'll be better prepared to handle it.

5 comments:

Kelly said...

Loved this. And I'm glad that WE got to eat out on Monday night before this got implemented! whew!

I'm sorry you had such a hard evening, but am glad that you are growing in Christ! What a blessing.

And I will take you out to dinner one night. ;)

Sonya Lee Thompson said...

Let me clarify a few things. First, I need to make it clear that the only reason my husband suggested this was because I was spending at least $70 per week eating out! You can see that this was an area that could be used in cutting back. Also, Kelly, I can still go out to eat with you, after all, paying for 1 person is much less expensive than paying for 7 or 8! :)

Kelly said...

Wow - that is alot of money. We used to get take-out (at night) 2 or 3 times a week, but now that I am doing the co-op, we rarely get it. And I don't like fast food, so we don't ever get take out during the day. Gabi is at school, and Christi doesn't like it. So that is easy.

My "problem" area is coffee. I do buy Starbucks ($4) probably 3 times a week. So I spend $12-15 a week on "take-out". But I don't have 6 kids!!!!

Miss ya already!

Bonita said...

Sonya,

This would make a great devotion. I think you and Chatty Kelly out to get together, maybe on one of those nights you're tempted to eat out, and work on writing some of your blog topics into publishable articles and devotions. You are both very talented writers and both of you are getting awesome messages from the Lord.

Sonya Lee Thompson said...

Thanks for the encouragement, Bonita! We will have to pray about that possibility and see what He has for us.

Design by Amanda @ BloggerBuster