Needs with Price Tags

I liked the Opus Dei message for the end of January -- Don't create needs for yourself.

In any event, all we need do is listen to the words of Our Lord: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’

If you want to achieve this spirit, I would advise you to be sparing with yourself while being very generous towards others. Avoid unnecessary expenditure on luxuries and comforts, whether out of caprice, or vanity, etc. Don’t create needs for yourself. In other words, learn from St Paul ‘to live in poverty and to live in abundance, to be filled and to be hungry, to live in plenty and to live in want: I can do all things in him who comforts me’. Like the Apostle, we too will come out winners in this spiritual combat if we keep our hearts unattached and free from ties. (Friends of God, 123-124)

I didn't notice how much I was looking for outside solutions (with a price tag) for various "needs" in my life until I started focusing on the abundance already in my home. I have been trying since last December to make do with what I have as much as possible.

My temptation isn't so much to buy luxuries for myself. My temptation is to spend money on the homeschool, on "bargains" at thrift stores, on little things for the household that we can easily do without. So instead of that, I've been digging through closets and under bed storage to find what we DO have and use that instead of the neat item I would like to buy.

I read a book written by a dad of a large family, once; he talked about his wife "shopping under the bed", meaning that she went and looked through their stored things and brought them out to use. I thought that could widen out into a philosophy of life.... often, by waiting for something or looking for it around you instead of immediately starting to strategize to acquire it, you find a sort of serendipitous effect. Sometimes. It doesn't have to be universal. But sometimes, it's nicer to wait, and more productive of gratitude when the thing does come.