Around 20 or so years
ago I heard an interesting saying KISS.
No it isn’t the rock band. It means keep it simple stupid. Although stupid isn’t a good word we can
change that to silly, splendid, what ever.
The meaning is to keep things simple.
In January at church I watched a video on how we should keep
our life simple. The verse they used has been on my mind ever since. It is Ecclesiastics 4:6. It is better to have one handful with peace
and tranquility than two handfuls with stress and turmoil and chasing after the
wind.
The way society has changed we have gone far away from
keeping our life simple. Upon my
observation here are some results of our fast paced life.
- People have become so busy with work and making money they no longer have time to visit a friend resulting in loneliness and higher suicide.
- We don’t have time with our spouses resulting in a high divorce rate.
- We say we spend quality time with our children and ignore what they want, quantity time. Children comitting crimes, dropout, apathy etc. in our children has skyrocket.
- We don’t have time to cook healthy meals so we go for prepackaged or fast food. We now have the most obsessed malnutrition society to ever walk on this planet.
- We have to make lots of money and have it now the result is people take their work home and even on their holidays having no or little rest. Stress is causing a high rate of diseases. Many people can’t even slow their bodies down long enough to get decent nights sleep.
- This list could go on.
After the January study having a simple life kept popping up. I have a problem with the little two letter
word NO as a result my life was far from simple.
I began to evaluate
my life and realized I was getting stressed out and more importantly I wasn’t
enjoying what I was doing. I always say
if you have to do something, you have less joy and more stress and it takes you
longer to do it. But if you want to do the same thing, then you are at peace and
it flows better. I had turned my life into a have to life, frequently this is
being a people pleaser instead of a God pleaser. Including pleasing myself instead of God.
After much pray and thought I am beginning to let go of
things in my life. What is working in my life, what don’t I enjoy doing? One thing is my Etsy is not working for me so
I shall be closing that. Cutting back on local art shows is something else I
have been doing. It will take some time but I’d rather have one handful with
peace and tranquility than two handfuls of toil and trouble and chasing after
the wind.
As Bobby McFerrin catchy
song of the 80’s said don’t worry be
happy.
8:24 AM |
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13
comments
Comments (13)
i am praying that God will bless you as you seek to follow Him.
I'm happy for you and I'm sure God's blessings will be poured out to you.
Many blessings for you Joyce. I admire you for listening to what God wants for you, even when most of the world says otherwise.
What you wrote is so true. You'd think it'd be simple to keep it simple...but no, it's difficult. :) Thank you for the encouragement to be diligent in keeping it simple.
So true... I have signage all over my house reminding me to "Simplify-Simplify-Simplify!" I think we all tend to keep adding things to our lives and have to be constantly vigilant to cut out the "good" things so we have time for the "best." I'm actually doing some shifts at present also with my blog, website, and Etsy shop, with the hopes of streamlining and simplifying!
I hope and pray you find the balance the Lord has for you!
Thanks for highlighting my George silhouette!
Kim :-)
I know what you mean. Why is it so easy for things to get busy and complicated and so hard to keep it simple? It is something I struggle with a lot. I pray things work out well for you.
Yeah I don't know why it's necessary to call yourself or others stupid to make an acronym. :-r I can't think of anything else to put there though; maybe that's why they used "stupid", they couldn't think of anything else.
Totally agree with that list too. Plus people don't take time for hobbies or fun things. If they do take any leisure time they spend it watching tv. Movies can be fun to watch but there's not much good on tv.
This post is so full of truths! Everyone has a tendency to allow life to become more complicated than it needs to be.
I, too, recently examined my life and, in an effort to "keep it simple" let go of things that just weren't working for me. Sadly, my Etsy shop was one of those things so I had to let it go. I'm not saying I'll never be back but for right now I need to put my energy elsewhere.
I also had to let go of some people in my life who were a drain on my time, energy and resources. Now I know that sounds harsh but friendship is a two-way street. Those I had to let go of apparently have forgotten that.
Lastly, I had to let go of something else, and this one is HUGE. I had to let go and let God handle my husband's issues with his weight. The fact that I couldn't "fix" him or "make it all better" was a bitter pill for me to swallow as I am a natural caretaker.
For those of you who don't know, my husband is on dialysis and in desperate need of a kidney. But he can't even be placed on the donor list until he loses 100 pounds. He's lost 45 pounds but it took him four years to do that. Please keep him in your prayers.
Joyce, thank you so much for this post. It has been a great pleasure to read your Monday Devotions over the last months that you have been volunteering for the CAST blog. We wish you all the best, but please don't be a stranger to CAST Team. Even without a shop you are welcome to remain a CAST Member. We wish you all the best in your simplification efforts and hope you get great blessings from it. Come on by and let us know how it goes. I know I need to simplify more. Unfortunately, my current simplification efforts include putting in a lot of extra work de-cluttering.
"Acknowledge Him in all your ways, and HE shall direct thy paths"
Please don't be a stranger. We at CAST are bound together by something stronger than Etsy :)
Many blessings to you Joyce! And thank you for the reminder to choose the best and balance.
Wonderful post. I guess, Keep It Simple Sweetie works for me. I've been working on simplifying my life and that is a gift.
Thank you for your comments and I will keep in touch as I have enjoyed the CASTTEAM. In the world we live in we need to stand together in God for he is our strength.
To Unexpected Treasures : I too have had let go of people as they were draining me too.
Good question why is it so easy to keep busy but not simplify. I think it is because we live in a very rushed world and it is easier to follow the crowd than become individuals.