Giving of our Money

My last post was about giving of our stuff and our time. Today, I'm going to share the next step I've decided to take in living in a more socially responsible way -  Giving of our money.

I feel like acquiring wealth is too much of a goal in our culture. It's probably not just our culture, but a struggle across the board for all humans. We strive to raise our children to get a good job so they can make "enough" money. Often it is about materialism, but I think for most of us it's genuinely about security. The problem, I'm finding out, is that security cannot be attained through having "enough" money. 

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No amount of insurance, no sized emergency fund, will ever really make us feel secure. Most of us will never come close to making so much money that we are totally financially secure The same goes for materialism. I know we will never make enough money to feel like we have enough stuff, nice enough stuff, all the stuff we think we need. When you put together the need for "enough stuff" and enough savings to feel secure, we'd have to be multimillionaires to be satisfied.

I'm not trying to downplay the importance of having an emergency fund or being prepared for retirement. I just think that we are in a sad, pointless pursuit if we think that these things will ever bring us true security.

Instead, my family is learning to pursue "just enough." Instead of constantly reaching to see how much we can get and how nice of things we can afford, we are starting to pursue the idea of how little can we get by with.

If we crunch our budget as much as possible with the mindset that any extra we get is not ours to indulge with, we will have more to give to those who truly know what it means to be in need. 

Then we will know what it is like to feel wealthy.

For our family right now, that means using every penny we can set aside to help us invite a new child into our family.

One practical way we are going to make this a real part of our lives is to partake in a "poverty fast" for a few weeks. I may write more about this later, but it will involve cutting our grocery spending drastically by eating only foods that are affordable for the very poor such as beans, rice, grains, cheap cuts of meat, etc. Since I'm still nursing and we have a toddler in the house, it will not involve cutting back on nutrition or amounts of food. We will simply be cutting out more expensive foods that we don't need, we just like them or enjoy the convenience of them.

There are a million and one worthy organizations to give your extra money to, the difficult part is choosing which one(s).

We have sponsored 2 children through WorldVision for the past several years. It's a great organization, and I trust them to use our donations wisely.

Don't forget local charities when you are looking for places to share your wealth, either.

As a side note, I'm sure you know this by now, but I want to make sure that my readers understand that I'm not writing about socially responsible living because I'm an expert on it or I feel qualified to teach others. I'm writing about my convictions and our journey because I need accountability, I need ideas, and I do feel a desire to share this journey with others and invite them to come along.

So, please, continue to give me your input, encouragement, and ideas!