Cody participated in a youth retreat this weekend with our church. They met at the church for dinner before breaking into their gender groups and heading to their host home for a night of...well...not sleeping, that's a given!
Our Friday small group meets at the church at seven, so naturally I had to head back and check in on my little Cody Wody, kiss him goodnight one last time. Ethan, our youth pastor gave me the shirt all the kids at the retreat were wearing. It said "Live Simply So Others Can Simply Live". And I like that.
I've been thinking about it often in the two weeks since I was walking out of the room and Ethan hollered "catch this!" and I turn to see a ball of white missiling through the air straight for my good hair day. Heck no, do NOT mess with the good hair. I twisted and contorted my body, jumped high into the air, leaning to the right, arms over my head as the shirt landed in one hand before I hit the ground and rolled into standing position again, not spilling a drop of the coffee I had in my left hand. You don't know. It might have been like that. Here she is, my new t-shirt--she hangs right next to "Do Not Remove Before Flight".
I'm thinking I'd like to do something fun with this one. If you've been hanging with me long, you might remember the Pilot John shirt. If you read the post, clicked over to Pilot John's blog, you remember. I know I personally had to click over there because it was business. I don't even remember if he had a profile pic or not. Did he?Ahemmm....okay...that said, this time I want to do something different. I want to simplify my life so I can do more for others who need me. That could be the friend who has cancer and needs a meal. It could be my friends in the nursing home who need new sweatshirts. Maybe the animal shelter is running low on pet toys. It might free me to give a few extra dollars to the children we sponsor through Compassion. Or perhaps I could give it to our church so they can decide how best to allocate the money. Whatever.
I checked it out online and have found to some people this means living green. I'm not green. I don't have anything against tree huggers, in fact I think some tree huggers are right up there with Tab soda (where the HECK can I get Tab, btw?!!!!!). For me, this means I must not be so quick to put it in my cart. I can be more discerning in my habits and have the money to do those things. I'm on a mission to learn as much as I can about saving money, about simplifying, about not being a slave to my possessions. I'm going to devote time to this and I'm going to share some of the better ideas I find.
I joke around a lot because God has shown me through the chapters of my life that I need to take myself less seriously. And I take a lot of silly face photos for my blog, but truth is it's not all about me. Nothing I do or say should take my focus off of something we were just talking about last night in small group. The Great Commission. Jesus' directive to his disciples, clear and filled with hope. And I can look at this and I can put my faith to action because I know He is with me and I know there's no choice to make.
With that, I want to do something. I want to send this t-shirt along to the first reader who says they'd like to wear it once, sign the back of it with the enclosed Sharpie, write a great simple living tip for me, then mail it onto another reader. And so on until it's reached 20 bloggers. After 20 bloggers have worn it, send her back to Kansas City! I'll share your tips, link your blogs (hopefully y'all blog silly photos--doesn't everyone???!) and we'll be off to a great start. 
16 Comments:
Ok, I'll bite - although I may have to put it on a kidling instead of me LOL Great idea, Stacey - truly :)
What a great idea! I'd be into it if you want to send it my way too!
Heck, yeah! I want to wear the shirt! And I bet D does, too - when I'm done I'll pass it on to her (and save myself some postage - hee hee!). Put me on the list, you sweet thing.
I could write a post a mile long about everything you just said - simplifying your life, concentrating less on the "stuff". In the past year we have done that, and it hasn't been easy. In our case God was undeniably telling us to, and forced our hand in more ways than one. But it is a good thing. Still a work in progress. But definitely a good thing.
Dawn, you silly! It's an XL and you put it on and be proud! Here's what--I think this is gonna be fun, so I'm going to send two shirts. One goes north, one south. I'm sending the first one north to Coffee Mom because I'll put her DD coffee I owe her in the envelope as well. And Coffee Mom can send it onto you, Dawn.
The other I'll send to B/S and she'll send it onto D. I can't WAIT to see what kind of response we gather from this.
Oh, I want to play too!
Actually, I think this is a great idea Stacey and I'd be proud to wear it, sign it and share a simple living tip. I'll work on the silly photo thing...you know, me being so serious and all.
Obviously I'm late to the game, so I can't pass it on to B/S to save the postage. ;) Heck yes, I want to wear that shirt and pass it on. Actually, I want to OWN one too so send me a link for it, k?
I'd like to do it, sounds like fun.
BTW they sell Tab in FL.
I once asked a group of friends what they were doing to make the world a better place. I was really surprised when many of them answered that the were helping to make the world a better place by being vegetarian. How on earth (pun haha) does eating vegetarian make the world a better place?
I want to live simply too. We have too much stuff! We clean out junk every weekend so we can bring in more. Good message-I will try and implement simplicity this week. Thanks Stacey!
One strep throat later.... I wanna play!!! Can I play?...Canna???
Sharon, D, GiGi, FAQ, Marie--you're in if you wanna be! I'll be contacting you soon for email addresses. This is gonna be goooood!
Oh I want to play but I guess I am too far from all of you.. !
I'm in Stacey, and I'm not that far away. You already have my e-mail address, I think :-) You are so wonderful - you always inspire me!
Have you won anything yet????
Stacey...
They are doing another printing in about 2 weeks. Let me know how many you'd like and the sizes!
I would love to join in on this, too...
Yeah, yeah! I want to OWN one, too!
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