Amazed

As I have time to think about our current situation I am amazed for so many reasons. Yesterday I spent the morning in my kitchen pulling things out of my cabinets that I don't need that I can put into a garage sale. I am amazed at how many things we moved into this house that we haven't used since we moved in. I am even more amazed that when we moved into this house 2 1/2 years ago we were in the same situation that we are in today, without an income. Why did I move all this stuff in the first place? I mean, really! How many bread loaf pans do we REALLY need. I think I only use one and I have 4. Crock pots-2, 9x13 casserole dishes-5, cake pans that I don't use, bunt pans I don't even know what to use them for, cups and glasses galore, and the list goes on. I am amazed that that is just my kitchen. I am amazed that just a few weeks ago my son asked me if we could have a garage sale and I told him that we didn't have enough stuff to put in a garage sale, and yet in about 2 hours I had three boxes of just kitchen stuff. (And a box of stuffed animals that my oldest brought in to contribute-I am amazed by her too!). 

I am also amazed that while we look at this time in our lives as temporary there are thousands upon thousands of people in our country and around our world that this is the reality of their daily lives. Read these statistics that I read:

1. On the national scale, Alabama has the 7th highest poverty rate at 16.1% of its population. It only has one county in which the poverty rate is in single-digits, and that is Shelby County with a poverty rate of seven percent.

2. About 39.8 million Americans were living in poverty in 2009, up from 37.3 million in 2007.
3. Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.

I know that we are not living in poverty.   I wouldn't want to offend anyone by claiming to completely understand what it is like to have to live under those conditions but when you realize you don't have an income you realize how blessed you are to have all that you do have, and then guilt sets in.  How can people, even people 20 minutes from me, live in such terrible circumstances while I have so much and me NOT do anything about it?   And yet I am amazed at how you can visit places where people live in poverty and yet there can be so much joy (although I know this isn't always the case).  I can not understand how that is even possible.  And yet, maybe there is some truth to the saying, "money can't buy happiness."  

So, our new motto:  LIVE ON LESS, SO WE CAN GIVE MORE.