Be forewarned--this is a long one...but it's good, in my humble opinion :)

So I want to share with you all something that is on my mind (I guess I didn't need to say that, isn't that what I always do here??).  :)  I have been thinking about the way many of us think, as Christians, and how we end up judging each other....This is about money, really.  One of the topics I'm passionate about, because God has taught my husband and I so much about it--wise stewardship, budgeting, giving, and more.

Ok.  Forget I mentioned this is about money!  Now think about the person you consider to be the most "spiritual" or the strongest Christian you know.  Why do you think that about them?  Do you know them all that well, really? 

Here's my thought: many of us believe that a person is holier than we are if they live like they are poor, and I believe that this is a false assumption that we (if you're in this with me) have.  God does not say that we should avoid making a decent wage, or living in a nice home.  God doesn't say we have to sell everything we own and live a life of aestheticism.  What He has said is: do not love money.

The fact of the matter is, you can be absolutely poor and love money.  Or--you could be absolutely rich, or somewhere in between and love money.  It's not a matter of what you've got or how many things you own, it's a matter of where your heart is.

Now, God does tell us to give--and I believe we are supposed to tithe 10% and then give money to the church, people in need, other ministries, etc.,--on top of the 10%.  Some Christians believe that they can give 10% of their income to any ministry they choose, but my husband and I believe strongly that it is to go to the church that we attend.  Some Christians also disagree with giving 10%--and yet the word tithe means "tenth."  We believe that this tenth ought to be given right off the top of the income--before taxes, and with a cheerful heart.  And we believe in giving when there are other needs around, as well.

I'm glad I laid that out there, but honestly, I got off subject a little bit!  What I was going to focus on was this:  the size of a person's bank account, house, or china cabinet is not an indication of how spiritual they are.  I know amazing stories of poor people who needed to rely on God to meet their needs, and how that strengthened their faith.  And yet, I've also known people with little (or who thought they had little) who constantly wanted more.  They judged people who had more, jealousy poured out from them, and they craved material possessions.  I have known poor people who made themselves even poorer by their love of money by ringing up debts.  There are middle-class and upper-class folks in the same boat.  And then there are the ones who have a heart to give.  I have friends who own a lot of nice earthly possessions compared to others in their church or age group--and yet, they give whole-heartedly--far more than 10% of their income.  They are a blessing to missionary friends and people in need.  Their hearts are right with Him. 

I will tell you where I am coming from.  Our situation is this:  we are moving into a nice-sized house.  In the community we live in, it is slightly higher priced than average, compared to the other houses that are currently for sale.  People, with this mindset that I think we've all been guilty of, could walk into our home with absolute judgment, thinking "they must not be very spiritual."  Or, maybe, "they must not be giving."  I will share with you our story, though, just so that you know that you cannot judge a book by it's cover--or--you cannot judge a family by their home. :)

Our story goes like this:  2 1/2 years ago we lived in a nice house in a really nice area (one that would be worth more than the one we are purchasing now).  We felt God calling us to give more.  Like I mentioned, we have been learning a lot about money--and we've prayed about it a ton.  We moved to a house that was almost half the size, and we cut our monthly payment in half.  At that time, we started giving a lot more--we started tithing 10%, started supporting some missionary families, created a "miscellaneous giving" category in our envelope budget system, and started looking for ways to give.  We know that God brought us to that home--it was an exceptional value, below the current market price--and marked with a for sale by owner sign at exactly the price we'd been praying about. 

We lived in that house for 2 years, and a few things happened during that time, besides a major change in our hearts regarding money.  First, I feel like hospitality is an area where God has gifted me, and it's a skill I learned well from my mom.  In that house, we did have people over (we had different families over to dinner just about once per week), but we were not able to host large groups anymore.  At our old house, we had hosted a women's Bible study downstairs while my husband hung out with the kids upstairs.  We also used to have extended family over (we have a big family) for holidays or birthdays.  We couldn't do that anymore, and I missed that.  But we knew that's where God had called us to be for the time.  Then my husband started working from home two days a week--a tremendous blessing, yet sort of hard to do in a home with 3 bedrooms and one living area.  The noise traveled easily, and we needed to keep a dedicated den for his working.  We also adopted our 3rd son in the time that we lived in that house--so we had 2 cribs and one toddler bed squished in a small room, and we had (and have) hopes of adopting more.  And the other room (besides ours) was still a den.  The housing economy also went up tremendously and we feel like God blessed us by increasing our home's value.  There are skeptics, I know, who would say that our equity would have gone up even more if we'd stayed in that more expensive house.  True, if you're looking at earthly possessions and material increase as the most important part of life--or even as the most important part of real estate.  No--in everything, God is most important, and we really felt His call to move to that smaller house.  And we really feel like He changed our hearts through that move.  It was something that we needed to do in order to trust in Him.  Had we stayed in our nice home in the nice neighborhood, yes, it would have gone up more in value.  But in our hearts, we might not be praising God--we might be believing we did it all ourselves with smart choices in real estate. 

So--after praying, and with the increase in the housing market, we felt like it was time to move.  We knew we needed a bigger home.  We found one--new construction, we got to pick our lot and our floor plan, and colors--and we're having a 3,200 square foot house built on a lot (not a lot of a lot if you know what I mean, but it will suit us!).  I will be able to entertain large groups again, my husband will have a dedicated den, we will have enough bedrooms to adopt some more children, and we will also have a homeschooling room.  The house is big--I know it's big!  It's about twice the size of the house my grandparents raised their 4 kids in.  But the size of the house doesn't make a person holier or more spiritual.  Because understand this--our hearts haven't changed for the worse to bring us to this bigger home.  We are still giving exactly the same as we were before, in our smaller house with the smaller payment.  We set up this pattern of giving, and we will not change it--and we would not have purchased a home that would have required us to change it.  If anything, we will look for ways to increase it.  A big tax return?  Yahoo!  What ministries can we give to?  That is how we think, now.  I'm not saying this to toot our horn--I'm saying this because it's something we're excited and passionate about, and this is where God has brought us.

I know that we will face the judgment, and the jealous remarks--it happened in our nice house in the nice neighborhood.  And yet, think of it this way--for the same amount of $$ that we are spending on this house, we could have purchased a 1200 square foot manufactured home on 1.5 acres, and people would have thought much differently.  It's still the same amount of money being spent on a house.  It's still the same amount of debt.  It would still, for us, be the same amount of giving.  And yet--people would believe we were more spiritual than those people down the street who live in those nice new construction homes.  See what I mean?  It's a crazy way to think. 

If we worried more about what people were thinking than we do about God's plan and where He's leading us, we might have gone for that 1200 square foot manufactured home--for appearance's sake.  But the ministries we feel He has called us to--primarily entertaining large groups and adopting more children (oh, and my husband being home 2 days a week--that is a ministry to our family!)--these things could not happen if we had made that choice.  So in our situation, that would have been a foolish step to take--and all for the appearance--of what, looking more spiritual because it seems like we have less?   

Now you know our story, but the truth of the matter is, we don't really know anyone else's.  And what's your story?  :)  You live in a ______ sized house and you have ________ cars, possessions, and money in the bank account--but where is your heart?  That's what matters.  :)    

as always, e-mail me with your thoughts!