Redeeming Love

I just finished re-reading Redeeming Love.

I loved it as much this time as last time! I would highly recommend it if you have never read it.

I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the people that lived in the 1800's had it a little better than we do now. Sure, there were no modern conveniences, no blow driers, hot showers, medications, or coke zero. But they seemed more content.

I realize it was only a fictional book, and there were many hardships that people faced in the old world, but the idea of the "simple" life sounds so appealing when we live in a fast paced world. It is impossible to get away from the stress of the business of life. It is expected of us here. If you are not working 2 jobs, taking care of a house, kids, pets, and running to four million activities then you are not living the "American Dream."

Since when did the "American Dream" become the "Stressed-out Life?"

Laugh all you want about me living on a farm (I am laughing at the thought) but seriously. I love the idea of living out in the middle of nowhere and having no one to rely on except God, your family, and if you are lucky, maybe a neighbor family.

I realize that they worked from daylight to dark, but they got to work together. They didn't all go their separate ways and only reunite for an hour for dinner time and then split up again to go do their separate evening activities.

They did not spend their evenings in front of the TV, at back to back sports activities, or at weekly events. They read the bible as a family, they danced with their neighbors, sang songs, and ate dinner together.

You have to wonder, did they have it better than we do now? I love the simplicity of it, even if there is no way I would ever survive like that now. I would have been just fine if it was all I ever knew.

The modern conveniences we have now are wonderful. Trust me, I am very thankful for doctors, nurses, and the new medications we have discovered to increased the life span. I am thankful for hot showers, and that I can just turn on a faucet and hot water comes out. I am in love with zero coke and my hair dryer.

But, we could all survive without these things. (Modern Medicine, maybe not as much, but you  can't have everything!)

Anyway, on that note, I am very thankful for where I am today and the wonderful blessings that we have in this world. Instead of day-dreaming myself back into a simpler time, I need to try and make my life less stressful now!

I realize that stress is a choice. So apparently I just need to choose to not worry, and choose to allow my life to slow down a bit.

Do Not Worry
25 “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 than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 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? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 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—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34