Saying Good-bye to Extravagance

ex·trav·a·gance  

Noun: 

1.  Lack of restraint in spending money or use of resources

2.  A thing on which too much money has been spent or which has used up too many resources.

Synonyms:  prodigality-wastefulness-extravagancy-waste

We live in a society that we want more and complain about what we do have.  I have been to Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica.  Each out of country trip, I have been on, the one thing that is overwhelming is the happiness of the people.  They are living in one room huts with dirt floors and no running water yet they are content.

I recall one emotional time in Brazil when I was holding a little child that had crawled up in my lap.  The mom started saying something to me in Portuguese.  I looked at our translator and said, "What is she saying to me?"  The translator looked back at me with tears and said she wants you to take her baby with you so she can live in America.  It broke my heart.  Do we really have it better in America?  The place where we're worried about keeping up with the people next door.  We are worried about getting the next thing that is bigger and better instead of helping the needy.

James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  God commands us to take care of orphans and widows. 

We've had several people ask us where we are going to put another child in our 3 bedroom house.  Honestly, that is the least of our worries.   This sweet boy just needs to be loved and THAT we can do.  Endale's identity and self-worth will not be wrapped around whether or not he had a bedroom of his own.  Instead, I pray that Endale knows without a shadow of a doubt that he is a precious gift from God and loved by the Creator of the universe.

Sometimes we just need perspective.  Take a minute to watch this video.