Today I felt a pressure that I usually try to ignore but for some reason it bothered me more than usual. I have a Fall Festival that I must bake for this weekend and needed to shop for ingredients. My gosh! Prices have risen so much just in the four weeks I have been away? This disturbed me. My special sugar that I use has gone up $20 for a 50 pound bag! Yikes. So I was uneasy, disturbed and asked myself is this worth it? Crying I came home to my house and did what I do best when I am stressed...I cooked dinner for my sons. I had a few minutes before I was to go to my prayer group and so I opened another fave of mine a book by Sarah Ban Breathnach called Simple Abundance and lo and behold the Divine has a sense of humor and also an answer for me. So here it is.
October 23
"The problem of money dogs our steps throughout the whole of our lives, exerting a pressure that, in its way, is as powerful and insistent as any other problem of human existence. And it haunts the spiritual search as well.-Jacob Needleman
"Take a deep breath. Relax. Be open. For the next week, we're going to think about money. The love of it. The lack of it. How we accumulate, spend, save, squanderit, lust for it, worship it, worry about it, work for it. Like success, money is ann emotionally volatile issue for most women. It's probably the most complicated relationship we have- and the one that most controls our lives because we let it." - Sarah Ban Breathnach
I guess I am definitely going to have to make an effort to read this book for the next few days!
She goes on to tell a story about Jacob Needleman (who in 1967)was coveting a prayer shawl in an antigue shop and wanted to buy it. He went to write a check and the store's owner refused him. Jacob ranted but to no avail for the owner adamntly refused to take a check and wanted the $35.00 in cash. Jacob stormed out of the shop without the shawl but this brought an idea to his mind and he penned the book Money and the Meaning of Life "thinking about the role that money plays in our lives." He says that money or the thought is always around us and rules our lives. To live takes a certain amount of money definitely. Duh, I know that already! Why do you think I am complaining!
"One of the things we probably don't realize is how hypocritical we are about money", Ban Breathnach writes. "We want it but we don't want to appear as if we do; we fear and desire it in the same heartbeat" and she continues with, "What is undeniable is that money is the raw material from which we build our lives, whether we like it or not.
One of our difficulties is that too often we confuse spiritual yearnings with material wants. For instance, you long for serenity...." Ah yes, that's the golden ticket.
We think that if we have money in the bank, serenity will follow because we can pay the bills easier but the fact is to have that fat bank account we must put in more effort, more work, more stress to maintain the lifestyle and bank account we want. She continues, "More stress, less serenity, no matter how much you're earning.....in becoming experts at quantity instead of quality, we rob our souls of Real Life's richness."
Jacob Needleman suggests that we should live the "practical advise' given to us by Jesus and that is, "Render unto Caesar that whis is Caesar's and unto God that whish is God's".
If we do this we will find balance with our materialistic and spiritual selves. When we do this we will "begin to understand what in ourselves belongs to the transcedent realm andto the material realm. And then give to each what is due-no more no less."
He says that "this is what it means to be human" so I guess I got confused today. I got frustrated, I needed more money to pay for my ingredients...I guess I have to get a better paying job.
October 23
"The problem of money dogs our steps throughout the whole of our lives, exerting a pressure that, in its way, is as powerful and insistent as any other problem of human existence. And it haunts the spiritual search as well.-Jacob Needleman
"Take a deep breath. Relax. Be open. For the next week, we're going to think about money. The love of it. The lack of it. How we accumulate, spend, save, squanderit, lust for it, worship it, worry about it, work for it. Like success, money is ann emotionally volatile issue for most women. It's probably the most complicated relationship we have- and the one that most controls our lives because we let it." - Sarah Ban Breathnach
I guess I am definitely going to have to make an effort to read this book for the next few days!
She goes on to tell a story about Jacob Needleman (who in 1967)was coveting a prayer shawl in an antigue shop and wanted to buy it. He went to write a check and the store's owner refused him. Jacob ranted but to no avail for the owner adamntly refused to take a check and wanted the $35.00 in cash. Jacob stormed out of the shop without the shawl but this brought an idea to his mind and he penned the book Money and the Meaning of Life "thinking about the role that money plays in our lives." He says that money or the thought is always around us and rules our lives. To live takes a certain amount of money definitely. Duh, I know that already! Why do you think I am complaining!
"One of the things we probably don't realize is how hypocritical we are about money", Ban Breathnach writes. "We want it but we don't want to appear as if we do; we fear and desire it in the same heartbeat" and she continues with, "What is undeniable is that money is the raw material from which we build our lives, whether we like it or not.
One of our difficulties is that too often we confuse spiritual yearnings with material wants. For instance, you long for serenity...." Ah yes, that's the golden ticket.
We think that if we have money in the bank, serenity will follow because we can pay the bills easier but the fact is to have that fat bank account we must put in more effort, more work, more stress to maintain the lifestyle and bank account we want. She continues, "More stress, less serenity, no matter how much you're earning.....in becoming experts at quantity instead of quality, we rob our souls of Real Life's richness."
Jacob Needleman suggests that we should live the "practical advise' given to us by Jesus and that is, "Render unto Caesar that whis is Caesar's and unto God that whish is God's".
If we do this we will find balance with our materialistic and spiritual selves. When we do this we will "begin to understand what in ourselves belongs to the transcedent realm andto the material realm. And then give to each what is due-no more no less."
He says that "this is what it means to be human" so I guess I got confused today. I got frustrated, I needed more money to pay for my ingredients...I guess I have to get a better paying job.
