There have been days that I really desire to have a conversation with someone who can really understand some of what I’m experiencing. The culture and way of life are so different, I want to talk about it. Just because we live different ways of life does not mean one is better than the other.. It’s just different. I’ve had many conversations with the One who understands all to help me with the differences in order to minister more effectively. Prayers for insight for understanding have been important.
I’ve seen things that we would consider “lack”, but that may not be the case.
I have a multitude of Choices.. Back home, I’d be trying to decide what color of shirt or which shoes I wanted to wear for the day. Here, I have limited choices. A few shirts and skirts and I wash nightly ~ what I am wearing is determined by what is DRY the next day (ok I do have to match). And I only have 3 pairs of shoes (sandals, hiking shoes, and flip-flops), I find myself in my sandals most of the time as all shoes come off at the door of houses ~ so much for indoor shoes ~ they are now all outdoor shoes!!!!!! (I do realize that the weather is changing back in home, so I’ll need socks when I return!!!!)
When it comes to food, diets may not have as many choices: Fruits (with flavor that makes eating fruits back home a bland experience), veggies and chicken or fish. Most meals end with cookies and tea. Even though the meals consist of the same types of food each time, preparation gives the variety. Curry, tomato and coconut milk are the three food flavors that are used most. JC ~ I ate prawns that were amazing ~ a tomato curry and I don’t think I’d be able to repeat it. We have many many choices of what we want to eat. Yes, some of what they eat is determined by the fact that the income does not provide them with the ability to afford a varied diet.
It can be considered a “lack of choices”, but the Lord has shown me that it shows that all choices are limited ~ even back home I sometimes think I really don’t have a wide variety of choices when I truly do.
Lack is a part of an attitude ~ How we look at and show our thankfulness in all circumstances to the Lord (abounding and abasing) will either expand or limit our choices. The Lord has prospered me. I will not take a poverty mentality and I am fully thankful for the blessing of God in my life. He’s the one that has taken me by the hand and led me step by step to believe for and receive what He has made available for me. With a grateful heart, He has expanded my choices..When those choices become too much, (more than we have room for), we are to be a blessing to others.
The ministry has been sharing that we are not to wait for what we think “abundance”is to be a blessing, rather to continue to be thankful for what He’s provided for us now and be led to be a blessing with what we have. It is the proper attitude that will take each of us into a deeper capacity to receive more. We despise what the Lord has provided for us as not good enough by skipping right over at what we have been given. We are to have an expectation on what is to come, but we a can not develop an ungrateful attitude ~ An attitude that has taken on an attitude of Lack (not having on hand) and not all sufficiency in all things(what is available to us). Phil 4:11-12.