Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. I trust in You, my God! Show me the path where I should walk, O Lord Point out the right road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me for You are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in You. Remember O Lord your unfailing love and compassion which you have shown from long ages past. Forgive the rebellious sins of my youth…Archive for spending
bling bling!
Bling-bling (usually shortened to bling) is a hip hop slang term that refers to elaborate, gaudy jewelry and other accouterments, and also to a lifestyle built around excessive spending and ostentation.
I actually really can’t stand that word, but lo-and-behold my pastor just went and decided to start a series called “BLING-onomic$”. Kind-of funny though hearing him say “bling” that many times during his preaching though…
the joys of Christmas [shopping!]
Ah the joys of Christmas! Well not really, because I’m really talking about the shopping…. and we all know that Christmas isn’t about shopping, right? RIGHT?
Last week we finished the stuff (we mostly didn’t buy but more just made ourselves) for family and finally mailed it all out on Saturday (and due to mailing costs, probably would have been better off ordering online and just getting the free shipping!).
We tried to wrap up shopping for the kids – and I think we did. Oh wait – except for the money that family sent us so we could go and buy more stuff at the last minute for them and further “enjoy” shopping and way too many cars on the road. It’s simply amazing how horrible it can be on the road this time of year unless you’re really patient (and even if you are, you will probably still get mad because the sheer volume of it is overwhelming). Just yesterday we saw a car driving way too slowly (which isn’t that unusual) but then they got in the left lane, turned on their turn-right blinker and proceeded to turn right. The car in front of us, which of course was in the right lane hoping they would be able to pass this car, almost got hit 
Plenty of cars slowing down way too early to make right-hand turns. Plenty of cars not paying attention to the left and causing the dozen or so cars behind them to wait through maybe three lights just to make it through. Ah the joys.
The best part of shopping over the weekend was when my wife had me drop her and the baby girl (who’s actually 2) off at Target so I could take the other 2 just across the street to the Dollar Store to buy gifts for each other. After driving away and getting onto the main road, I realize that I didn’t ask for my money from the wife (I generally am not the keeper of the money), and think I better just go and take out a $20 at the ATM. But in the process of driving, I completely forget the ATM and pass the bank. I then proceed to wait thru a light to make a u-turn, and then u-turn again at the next light and get to the bank. When I get to the ATM and pull out my wallet, I notice my ever-thoughtful wife actually DID give me a $20 (just didn’t tell me). So I leave the bank lot, make another u-turn to get to the other side of the street and then finally into the parking lot where the dollar store is.
Ah the joys. Most years, I’m really frustrated over all this shopping. Last year, my wife just up and did it all in one day.
I could link to so many other people that wrote online about shopping and Christmas. I will link to Gary from Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit as I really liked this “We went shopping for a while this afternoon. The traffic, the parking lots, all the people, what a pain.” He wrote a lot more than that – but I really connected with that. I really enjoyed Brant’s post from Letters from Kamp Krusty regarding crap and don’t buy it if you can’t afford it. Towards that topic, I will end with an SNL skit regarding Debt Management and how to get out of it:
Money and Me
Some people may contradict our teaching, but these are the wholesome teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. These teachings promote a godly life. Anyone who teaches something different is arrogant and lacks understanding. Such a person has an unhealthy desire to quibble over the meaning of words. This stirs up arguments ending in jealousy, division, slander, and evil suspicions. These people always cause trouble. Their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth. To them, a show of godliness is just a way to become wealthy.Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:3-10
Well this post is for the “Money and the Church” synchroblog topic, but I really don’t want to write about the church and its involvement with money (although for those who did decide to write about that, verse 5 above sure does ring true!) especially since I myself just don’t have a lot of personal experience over that. I do however want to talk about myself, as it seems a lot are instead writing about other people instead of themselves.
UPDATE: 11/20/07 – Over the weekend we went to Sam’s Club to stock up on supplies for Thanksgiving (and the Respite Program dinner we did last night…), and I saw a Nativity set that were something like 2 foot high. The cost? Almost $500
