A Daily Reminder: Don't get caught up...

Good morning my dear's!

How are you this morning? Well, I hope.

Today is going to be kind of a serious post for you. Of course I try to do a serious post on Wednesdays, and a recipe for you on Sunday. Speaking of that recipe, how many of you have tried it yet!? My husband got up in the middle of the night to eat the rest of it, so we had NO leftovers. I only got one bowl of it! Hahahaha.

Anyway, before I get off track...

As I sit here and drink my morning cup of joe, I realize just how special life is. Of course I have my moments, and actually break down [bawling my eyes out, I might add] because of my blessings.. but, this is not the time. I truly feel honored to be in the life I live. Sure, we don't have much money. We don't do too much right now that is interesting. We live in a tiny efficiency apartment. But, above all of that- life is grand.

In our journey through this life, we see so many people that are unhappy. They're always jealous at the folks that do have the things they want. My question to the general public is, why? What I mean by that is, why does everyone (or mostly everyone) get jealous at people for having the things they'd like to have? It makes no sense to me. Most people generally work hard for the things they have. We must remember that each of us are made differently for a reason. Not only do we have to take that into consideration, but we have to understand that it could be our wanting more, that is making us never satisfied. Then, there are the ones that are "at fault" that we don't have the things we'd like. Sometimes we may just be tired of trying to get ahead and take it easy on the work front. Some of society is lazy, and they don't want to work hard. They would like the things handed to them. Then, there are the folks that want to finance, finance, finance.

It's tough to be content with what you have in a consumer driven world. Some people connect their self worth with how many items they have, or the expense of the items they do have. When others don't have these items or they can't keep up with society, they tend to feel less about themselves (Sigal, Aviv, Yossi, 2015). Not only is it dictating how others see themselves, it is also dictating what success looks like to themselves and others (Sigal, Aviv, Yossi, 2015). Some people don't see the point in keeping up with society [like myself], and some people are the types of people that want to lay low. They just want to live their life in a way that does not draw attention to themselves [my husband]. In my opinion, having unrealistic expectations of what happiness means is exactly the problem. As a society, we are told that happiness is how many possessions we own and it is what makes us satisfied (Lee, Awn, 2016). Don't get me wrong, we all have a little bit of materialism in us. At least I think so. But, the point is not to let it consume us. Don't make it how you see yourself.

The point of this post was to let you know that it is not the things you own that define you. It is how you treat people, and your heart. We all live a different kind of life, and that is okay. But, you can't take your belongings with you when you die. Not only that- we don't have bookoos of items because we would rather have the memories. Making memories, and seeing new things in this world that is only a once in a lifetime opportunity. That is the things that money can't buy. That is why I feel honored to have the life I have. We've been blessed to be in the higher middle class bracket, we have been blessed to be in the lower lower class bracket. Either way, we found out what life is really about. Love. Life is about loving others. God has shown us how to do these things for many years now. It just took us a while to want to.

I hope you enjoyed reading this little dose of my thoughts.

May you all be richly blessed, and take nothing for granted. I love you! Comment below if you have any input on what I've said here today!

Thank you!

References:

Sigal Segev , Aviv Shoham , Yossi Gavish , (2015) "A closer look into the materialism construct: the antecedents and consequences of materialism and its three facets", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 32 Iss: 2, pp.85 - 98

Lee, M. S., & Ahn, C. S. (2016). Anti-consumption, Materialism, and Consumer Well-being. Journal of Consumer Affairs,50(1), 18-47. doi:10.1111/joca.12089