Five Dolla - Holla!
You have to say the title with some pizzazz or else it just sounds silly.
Back when I waited tables in college if a customer left us a $5 tip we would call it a Five Dollar "Holler." It was always a nice treat because waiting tables can be tough. But that isn't what this post is about. Instead it is about my current adventure with God.
If you have been on my blog before you know that God has me in a place of less. Simplifying. Saying no to myself. I will admit it has been a tough road to walk some days. However, I have been more content in the last year than I can remember being in all of my life.
Enter the Five Dolla - Holla. You wouldn't know this, because I have been too busy to write about it, but I have accepted a new job! I am now the Radical Giving Ambassador for With This Ring! I promise a post on how God has orchestrated this whole thing soon. So, with this new job comes lots of new experiences, including being out and about among people, ladies groups and churches in order to share about what WTR is all about. In case you didn't know the job I left in order to pursue this one was selling beef as a stay at home mom. My daily uniform was generally sweatpants and a comfy shirt - for the last 3 years. If I had to give a farm tour that was still easy because I would throw on a pair of jeans, boots and my farm shirt. Ta-da! Now, I have to represent a ministry I believe in and that requires a whole new look.
Right at the time that I accepted this new position God impressed on me that He didn't want me spending more than $5 for any item of clothing until He released me from this season. What the what?! Here is my incredibly mature reaction...
Um, God since You know everything, I am pretty sure You know I do not have any appropriate clothing to represent this awesome new ministry You brought me to. This is all Your idea. $5. Really?
Apparently He meant business because I have not felt a release from the $5 limit yet (and this started in May).
However, as always He has taught me a lesson I will not soon forget. Taking me to a place where I had to stop looking to myself to provide and instead look to Him I have been blessed and found more at my new local mall, a.k.a. the Goodwill Store, than I thought possible. To remind myself I thought I would post a picture of it all together. Most of these items I got for right at $5 but a few were even less - SPECIFICALLY my new favorite pair of Banana Republic jeans that I paid $3.48 for and my Fossil purse that I got for $2! Holla! (Side note: I really do not care about labels but it just goes to show that His provision is so much more than just bottom of the barrel.)
What is the moral of this story? As I was reading the Word I came across it loud and clear (stick with me here... it will be worth it!)
22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Luke 12: 22-23 & 27-34
As we are faithful to do the things that He asks of us, whether it is giving up something we really want (or even need) or limiting ourselves on our purchases, we get to see the hand of God more clearly in our daily life. In turn He is honored and HIS glory (not ours) is the goal. It is in our daily choices that we reveal our hearts and where our treasure actually lies. I am once again reminded that THIS WORLD IS NOT IT for us. We have so much more to look forward to.
Do I hope that one day I get to purchase clothing that costs more than $5? Sure, but I can tell you this - the first few weeks of this season when I had to walk away from a great pair of jeans that were only $12 and I thought about them for 2 days made me realize that even with all of the changes that God has brought me through that stuff still had a hold on me. So until the love of stuff is fully uprooted and a desire for His plans and goals for me, no matter the cost, is clearly rooted in my heart, I will stay at the $5 level. I really believe it isn't what we own that is a problem, it is what owns us.
That reminds me of this quote from Andre Gide,
"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you."
So at the end of this post I have to ask you... is there anything that possesses you? If, as you think and pray, you come across something offer it to God. He may not ask it of you, but if He does, I promise you that you will be more content without it than without obedience to Him.
Back when I waited tables in college if a customer left us a $5 tip we would call it a Five Dollar "Holler." It was always a nice treat because waiting tables can be tough. But that isn't what this post is about. Instead it is about my current adventure with God.
If you have been on my blog before you know that God has me in a place of less. Simplifying. Saying no to myself. I will admit it has been a tough road to walk some days. However, I have been more content in the last year than I can remember being in all of my life.
Enter the Five Dolla - Holla. You wouldn't know this, because I have been too busy to write about it, but I have accepted a new job! I am now the Radical Giving Ambassador for With This Ring! I promise a post on how God has orchestrated this whole thing soon. So, with this new job comes lots of new experiences, including being out and about among people, ladies groups and churches in order to share about what WTR is all about. In case you didn't know the job I left in order to pursue this one was selling beef as a stay at home mom. My daily uniform was generally sweatpants and a comfy shirt - for the last 3 years. If I had to give a farm tour that was still easy because I would throw on a pair of jeans, boots and my farm shirt. Ta-da! Now, I have to represent a ministry I believe in and that requires a whole new look.
Right at the time that I accepted this new position God impressed on me that He didn't want me spending more than $5 for any item of clothing until He released me from this season. What the what?! Here is my incredibly mature reaction...
Um, God since You know everything, I am pretty sure You know I do not have any appropriate clothing to represent this awesome new ministry You brought me to. This is all Your idea. $5. Really?
Apparently He meant business because I have not felt a release from the $5 limit yet (and this started in May).
However, as always He has taught me a lesson I will not soon forget. Taking me to a place where I had to stop looking to myself to provide and instead look to Him I have been blessed and found more at my new local mall, a.k.a. the Goodwill Store, than I thought possible. To remind myself I thought I would post a picture of it all together. Most of these items I got for right at $5 but a few were even less - SPECIFICALLY my new favorite pair of Banana Republic jeans that I paid $3.48 for and my Fossil purse that I got for $2! Holla! (Side note: I really do not care about labels but it just goes to show that His provision is so much more than just bottom of the barrel.)
What is the moral of this story? As I was reading the Word I came across it loud and clear (stick with me here... it will be worth it!)
22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29 And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30 For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Luke 12: 22-23 & 27-34
As we are faithful to do the things that He asks of us, whether it is giving up something we really want (or even need) or limiting ourselves on our purchases, we get to see the hand of God more clearly in our daily life. In turn He is honored and HIS glory (not ours) is the goal. It is in our daily choices that we reveal our hearts and where our treasure actually lies. I am once again reminded that THIS WORLD IS NOT IT for us. We have so much more to look forward to.
Do I hope that one day I get to purchase clothing that costs more than $5? Sure, but I can tell you this - the first few weeks of this season when I had to walk away from a great pair of jeans that were only $12 and I thought about them for 2 days made me realize that even with all of the changes that God has brought me through that stuff still had a hold on me. So until the love of stuff is fully uprooted and a desire for His plans and goals for me, no matter the cost, is clearly rooted in my heart, I will stay at the $5 level. I really believe it isn't what we own that is a problem, it is what owns us.
That reminds me of this quote from Andre Gide,
"Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you."
So at the end of this post I have to ask you... is there anything that possesses you? If, as you think and pray, you come across something offer it to God. He may not ask it of you, but if He does, I promise you that you will be more content without it than without obedience to Him.
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