Ugly

This is my least favorite decoration in my house.

My husband decided that we were needing a visual reminder of the Ugly, so he had the kids help him pick up rocks from outside and put them in my favorite vase. When they didn't all fit, we added a secondary pitcher. Yuk. He then labeled them, with tape and note paper. Double Yuk.

Each rock represents $100 of debt. Each rock is the picture of slavery. (Proverbs 22:7) For my sweet 6 year old daughter it represents what's standing between her and a trip to Disneyland. Each time we pay off $100 on the Visa bill, or Sallie Mae (Student Loans) we take a rock out of the vase and toss it back into the yard where it belongs.

It's a good reminder and a solid motivation for me. This debt, this slavery is UGLY! Our good friend Dave already told us this and gave us a plan for removing it, but sometimes hard to remember when you want.

And yet, His promise was this:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:25-34

We are learning the lessons of less want and less worry.

And we are getting rid of the Ugly, one rock at a time!