Oi! (Stole that from you, GiGi, is that okay?)....Ethan, Youth Pastor at our church just emailed me and asked how many shirts I wanted to order and I realize...I didn't follow up on this! I'm fixin to get these addresses to all who indicated they wanted to play along with The T-Shirt Post. I'll be emailing you today or tomorrow for those addresses. Then no reason I won't have time on Friday to get those going, and I cannot WAIT to see the blog posts!
I have, however, been giving the living simply phrase a great deal of thought. Is this living simply, or is it living....simply?
My inclination was living simply, learning to do without the 'things' I have grown accustomed to, so that's where I'll take this (some things, such as Tab, I didn't get to choose! WHERE IS TAB?????). Yet there are things I am willing to do without so that I put myself in a position to help my friends in the nursing home as well as the two kids we have sponsored through Compassion. I am turning more and more to the store brands, because while I scoff at saving $.50 on a bottle of "Meinz" ketchup, if I did that just ten times through my shopping trip, that'd be $5.00. Five bucks per week would be $20 plus a month. My little guy, Gervasio, could purchase something useful in Kenya for that. The trick will be to dedicate that savings to them, write it down after each trip and save it.
I've got other convictions. I don't need to go to lunch with friends each week, I've save tons there. I don't go often anymore. And when I do lunch, I don't need to be the hero and pay for everyone (I do that often, I think it's insecurity on my part--they shouldn't pay to be with me, I should!). I am beginning to look at my life, see how discipline has been as absent as a man at a bunco party.
Even more important, I need to tithe more and on a regular basis. Put that money in the basket FIRST, then everything else will follow....or not. Maybe I do without for a few weeks. That scares me, I am struggling with that. But over the years, I've come a long way in my thinking about money, about life emphasis. And I trust my church to know best where to put that money--there are people helped in ways I'll never hear about. But I know if I need them, they'll be there, and my friends who put money in that week won't know about it either. I guess that's my goal for the remainder of this year and the year coming up.
So...the confessions are out on the table, you see I have been and still am selfish with my worldly possessions.
I'm going to send out the shirts along with a Sharpie....first to the North, going to Coffee Mom in Canada, and the Southern one starting with D in Texas.....and they'll keep the chain going (I'll put in the addresses of the next in line) and perhaps add some friends of their own to that list.
If you want to OWN one of these shirts, the proceeds go to charity...they cost $10 plus a few bucks shipping (I'll pick up the handling, lol). Ethan knows the little girl who designed it and prints them. Let me know, give me the size you want (XL is quite large) and I'll see that you get one ordered. I plan on making these shirts part of my Christmas shopping, it really is a nice little shirt, good quality, the black and white is simple, goes with any pair of jeans you'll find in any given consignment shop!
Nov 13, 2007
Live Simply, Simply Live, Give Simply, Simply Give....The Shirts Are Going Outttt
Nov 3, 2007
My Live Simply T-Shirt Idea.... This'll Be Fun!!!
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. 
