Rich or Poor?

Filled to overflowing! 

When I take pictures, I do a little staging. My kids know that before they can open their birthday presents, I want to make sure the room where the opening is happening is clean and tidy. When I take pictures in the kitchen the holes in my linoleum floor won't show nor will the missing grout in the counter tiles, nor in the bathroom the scratches on the toilet porcelain (not that I take pictures of my toilet mind you). I'm keeping out the peeling on the side of my kitchen cabinets and the rust on my radiators. I've mentioned before that my daughter LOVES to photograph flaws. She finds them quite artsy and edits them in all sorts of ways. There are a couple of reasons I avoid such pictures. One is they don't represent what I want to show. But even more than that, if they are in the photo, THAT'S ALL I'LL SEE! To me they symbolize 1) work 2) money and 3) the feeling of "never getting it right." 

Last night I had a big group of Youth and Youth Leaders at my house. I received some sweet comments about my house that balanced out my vision a bit. It reminded me that I tend to focus on the flaws in the house. It reminded me that rich/poor is relative. To one person you are rich, to another you are poor. The person with a huge house thinks mine small, the person in a smaller house things mine big. 


I can remember our first apartment when we got married. It was in a horrible, horrible spot in Portland. We were told our neighborhood had the highest concentration of people and of crime in the state of Maine. The apartment was tiny, tiny, tiny and not in good shape at all. Boy was I convicted of pride when some friends who had to live at the YMCA came to visit. They wanted to know how in the world we were able to get such a nice place! This is a lesson I have learned and relearned and relearned again over the years!

Riches and poverty, much and want, are all relative terms. They are birthed in *comparisions*.  I pray to a mighty God who owns the cattle on a thousands hills and he meets my needs. However, if I am always looking at the flaws and what I DON'T have then my view is the problem, not what I don't or do have. 

This is one reason I do my "Thankful Thursday" posts. It helps me review my week and focus on the blessings. Often, when I go to bed, I'll think of potential blessings for the next day. I'll often say to my husband, "Tomorrow I'm going to wake up and have a really good cuppa coffee!" It's my way of saying, "Tomorrow's gonna start GOOD." 

But, you see, I still have a ways to go. I need to balance hard work and keeping up with what needs to be done with contentment in what has been done and what is in the scope of *possible*.  And I need to always pray for what we need, but be content with what God has decided we need. 

“Two things I ask of you, LORD; 

do not refuse me before I die: 

Keep falsehood and lies far from me; 

give me neither poverty nor riches, 

but give me only my daily bread. 

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you 

and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ 

Or I may become poor and steal, 

and so dishonor the name of my God."

Proverbs 30:7-9