The Simple Life – Almost Amish

I don’t even remember when I read this book, but I took 2 whole pages of notes on it – I thought it was high-time I blogged about it!

I have always had a fascination with the Amish. Dan was just saying today that we could make it in the wilderness of Alaska, in a cabin type setting. He said with my homemaking skills and his hunting skills, we would could probably do it. I have such an appreciation for the simple. The simple life. The simple way of doing things. I suppose, like the Amish. There are so many life principles that I gained from this book. You may find it odd that I keep doing these book review type blogs, but I feel a lot of this information is just too good to not share. Plus, they are things that I have been pondering for quite some time. So, like before, I will italicize ideas from the book, and add my own comments below. I hope you gain a better appreciation for the more simple way of doing things!

What a great start! I am reminded of the Bible verse that talks about taking the plank out of your own eye before you try and take out the plank in someone else’s. Do I let the Bible guide my every action? Or do I try to do everything the way I think it should go? The Bible is our map and guide – so let’s use it! When I look back on our home, there were areas of it that were a little messy and/or not as clean as they could be. Yup, that is a straight reflection of the inside of me! I am not saying your home has to be perfect, but I do think there is some truth in that statement, that the home is a reflection of who we are as people. I have some areas of my life that I still need to work on and that may be considered “messy” – hmmm…I suppose our home was a reflection of that?

Can get an “amen?” Over the past few years, Dan and I have really tried to work on this. I would say Dan and I are not big spenders. When we first got married, we knew we wanted to try and pay off our school loans as quickly as we could – I would say we were putting a significant chunk towards our loans, which we are thankfully done with. Well, literally, the month we were done, we found out about being able to have a baby through Brenda being our carrier. So, we started to save for that. Now we are saving for who knows what :)! Was it a burden? Maybe at first, but we are SO THANKFUL that we had school loans to pay off because it helped us figure out the type of lifestyle we wanted to live – what we can live with and what we can live without. We definitely own things we don’t need. But over the past few years, we have been trying to rid ourselves and our house of what we just plainly don’t use or know someone else could get better use out of. So, yes, PURGE. I would HIGHLY recommend it! BUT, the next step is to not let anything else to replace it.

Think about catalogs! How many catalogs do you get? Magazines? Things to just drool and dream over? I put some serious thought into that over the past year and realized I was getting magazines I didn’t really care about. So I unsubscribed from them. Now I only get Country Living, Living, and Family Life (a publication of the Amish). The only catalog I can think of that we get is Bass Pro. I do not have any store credit cards, so I do not get any store catalogs (except the Joann’s sale flyer). I sometimes even think that 3 magazines or publications are too many. But I enjoy them all and get some pretty good ideas from them. I got rid of my Better Homes and Garden and Good Housekeeping – I think I was getting those for free for awhile, but they were just wasting my time! How about YOU? What publications are you getting in the mail that serve really no purpose? What about your mail? What random catalogs do you get that only make you desire MORE?

Whew! Is that chock full of challenges! The suggestion was made to not go to the mall to shop. I found that interesting. Why DO we go to the mall? To get the latest fashion? To drool over what we can’t afford? Living where we do, we thankfully do not have a very good mall. In fact, the only time I ever go there, is to go to Joanns. I told Dan that moving to St. Joe was good for me financially because I NEVER go shopping to just shop. Granted, I am not a huge shopper in the first place – just ask my family :). I only go if I need something, which is rare. I’ve realized that some of my clothes are a little worn (some are still from early college), but they still fit :)! Yes, I will buy a shirt here and there, but Dan and I have both said because we don’t have a lot of shopping options here, it keeps us away from stores. Wherever we move to next, it’ll be interesting to see if that mentality sticks – it’ll be a challenge! I will say I do go to a mall to buy my jeans – no stores in our area carry 37 1/2in. inseam jeans – so to Vanity I go! Though, I realized I have 2 good pairs of jeans, which one has a hole in it – may need to go soon!

The book talks about “i-gods.” How can we hear the voice of God in a multi-tasking world?
What is our time on the internet compared to our time with God?

Oh how those are SO CHALLENGING! I can’t tell you how many times conversations are interrupted because of a phone ringing or an email being sent on the phone – I am so guilty of answering the phone when talking with people (even though I rarely use my cell phone – I still do it though). How often do I multi-task and miss hearing God because of it? Yes, I think women are AWESOME at multi-tasking and we do it well :). But if that is ALL we do, when do we have time to hear God? I think the thought of using the tv as an electronic babysitter is such an interesting thought. How true is that? What do you think people did before tv was invented? I recently went out for coffee with some of my girlfriends and we ended up talking about that – how we use electronics to babysit our kids. My friends were saying that they see 3-5 year olds with their parent’s i-phone, playing games or watching videos, while they are at an appointment. What happened to toys? What happened to books? I know, some of you are probably thinking, “Kristin you have no idea…you are not a parent!” You are right. I am not. BUT…our parents could do without these things and I would say we turned out okay, right? So why can’t we follow in that trend? Just a thought.

And why do we buy things? What is our motive? To impress? To draw attention? So guilty of that! How self-absorbed. What is practical? How will that “item” work for you, instead of you having to work for it? Think about that the next time you are shopping.

Luke 12:15 says: Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”

By talking about all of this, I am not saying we have mastered these thoughts and are never greedy. That is FAR from the truth! I only state these things so that you too, maybe will wrestle with the same choices we wrestle with. Together, we can continue to keep our homes and lives uncluttered. And ultimately, the goal being to grow closer and deeper in relationship with our Father!

So what is keeping YOU from a deeper relationship?

An Amish proverb once said “Before we pray ‘Thy kingdom come,’ we must first pray ‘my kingdom go.'”

Lord, may my kingdom go so that YOUR kingdom may fill my life!