This is Matt. It's really Matt. The posts before said I posted, but it was really Carrie.
So I wanted to write about a cool thing that's happened with our budget over the past month or so. God has provided for our family in abundance...not in a televangelist kind of way. But he's given us our daily bread in a way that we did not expect.
Carrie and I have tried to remain extremely disciplined with our finances in order to honor God by paying down some debt, and focus on simpler things rather than extravagance. For instance, I'm taking the bus three to five days a week to cut down on gas expenses. That discipline also forced us to cut our food budget to the bare necessities to make dinner and lunch and breakfast. We were not cooking gourmet meals.
That led us into discouragement for a while. We got stuck in a rut of mac and cheese and hamburger helper because it was cheap.
Feeling like we needed something different, Carrie and I independently felt a call from God about two months ago to shop more naturally and organically.
So...that brings us to this picture of Grace with the banana. We have more produce, more food, more provision, than we've had in a long time. Here's the ironic part (especially when you think about organic food prices). Our pantry and refrigerator are more full than when we shopped at Wal-Mart or H.E.B. We've only increased our grocery budget by a few dollars a month with some savings in other areas. No longer are we eating hamburger helper or mac and cheese trying to stretch our food budget for the week. We have eaten wonderful shrimp stir-fry meals, granola cereal, and we have run out of room for fruit and vegetables in our refrigerator. I don't believe we are buying more, but our switch to healthier things has trained our mind to think about what we're eating, and allowing us to enjoy our food more...thus stretching our food budget in ways we didn't expect.
This provision has forced us into a thankful attitude and posture with God. We have truly found the meaning of praying for daily bread, and God has provided in abundance. I wonder and daydream about the parallel to Jesus providing bread and fish to the masses to blow everyone's mind (Mark 6:32-44). Mark 6:42 says, "So they all ate and were filled."
Even more, this wonderful abundance in our lives has driven me to God's word.
Deuteronomy 8:3-4 puts this idea perfectly. Moses is talking to the Israelites about the wonderful abundance of manna. Moses said that the Lord provided manna (which neither the Israelites nor their fathers knew about before the desert) "...that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Your garments did not wear out on you or your foot swell these forty years," the verse says.
Manna did not last for more than a day because it became rotten and smelled (Exodus 16). The Israelites had to trust that God would provide food every day.
Thus the Israelites had to trust the Word of God that He would provide food every day.
My daily bread, truly, must come from the Word first. I have been convicted to spend more time in the Word than ever before. This experience of God providing more food in our lives has only driven me back to the word to become even more full.
I pray that God would continue to provide both Carrie and me an abundance of time in His word.
We're still at the rookie stage of this whole organic and natural thing. We don't want to do it to be cool or because it's the "in" way to live here in Austin. We wanted to do it because we felt the call of God in our lives to eat healthier. In turn, we've been blessed by God with an abundance of time in the Word and with food.
We are truly full of our daily bread.
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2 comments:
I started eating a lot more fresh vegetables as well and I noticed that my food dollars stretch a lot farther than they used to. Last summer, I spent 40-50 Euros a week on food and still ran out halfway through the week. Now I spent 20-30 Euros a week and a have food leftover, even after sharing meals with friends. Vegetables seem a lot more expensive, but they are much more filling than overprocessed mac and cheese. :-) I'm glad that God led you in the direction. Any chance God will lead you toward vegetarianism? :-)
That's awesome! We've started shopping at Trader Joe's, which increases our budget in the short term, but really saves in the end like you said. For example, we're buying protein bread that's packed with fiber, so even though it's a bit more pricey, Ryan eats one pbj instead of two and is full.
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