When Is Enough, Enough?

Having a child requires having lots of things. Clothes, diapers, toys, food items, furniture, etc.

Heading into a different season in the north means looking through our closets and figuring out what we have and what we need for the next literal season of life.

But where do you stop?

Call me a newbie (because I am; I will claim that), but at what point do we as mothers say “My child has all she needs and the rest, well, isn’t needed?”

When I look through Mazy’s closets, we are so blessed to be able to have clothes to put on her. I know that in some countries that is hard to come by. When I looked at what we had for her for summer, I realized we had a lot of “very” summer clothes (for the hot days), but not much for the in between because the rest was long-sleeved. In other words, we were short on t-shirts. It is a simple dilemma, but it begged a different question. It led to something deeper.

How much DO we need? What can we make do with? What can’t we live without?

I turn that back on myself when I look at my own closet. I have been in the LONG process of trying to downsize my clothes and sticking with a certain style. Lets face it, I am never going to be a trendy dresser. Never have been, probably never will. Trends fade and die off. I don’t want to be tight-rolling my jeans with high socks because I am trying to be cool (come on, you remember that, right?). There is just no way to keep up with the trends, unless you bought a whole new wardrobe every year.

Yet as I look at my closet, I realize I am faced the with same question that I was asking when I looked at my daughter’s clothes:

WHEN IS ENOUGH, ENOUGH?

I am starting to be more and more convicted about my thought patterns and how I live my life. How I live is how Mazy will learn to live (for the most part). How I view money and stuff is how she is going to view it. What worldview am I created in our home and representing to her?

That has really challenged me. Am I trying to dress in the latest and greatest? If so, is Mazy going to be begging me to help her do the same? Well, it will come at a cost. Will I teach Mazy what “enough” means? Will she have a boundary?

Will I have a boundary when it comes to enough? Do I even have one?

All questions that I continue to ponder as a parent. I realize it is a never ending battle, but it is something I always want to be aware of. What is enough? When is it enough?

What are your thoughts?
P.S. I have restrained myself from buying t-shirts. I am seeing how far we can get before I have to (in hopes that I won’t have to!)

P.S.S. I happened to have written this post a few hours before youth group, but didn’t post it. Well, I got to youth group and one of our leaders said she had a bag of clothes for us, that had 18 month-2T and up clothes. Can I just tell you what was in it? Summer clothes and t-shirts! Trust me, we can afford to buy new clothes. God has blessed us with plenty of money, but I just wasn’t going to cave yet. So what a gift those clothes are! She had no idea and what a sense of humor God has! What a joy it was to tell her that story too.

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