The Contentment Challenge

A few weeks ago I ran across Nancy Ray's blog. If you haven't read it, you should! She is such an incredible role model. She not only runs her own photography business, but she is also a strong believer, and she and her husband are die hard believers in Dave Ramsey's financial peace university plan (they must be after my husbands heart). 

While all of those things are phenomenal, perhaps what I found most intriguing about Nancy's blog is her heart. This lady has a gift in sharing her challenges in this crazy world and the wisdom and strength God has given her to perceiver through it.

Most recently I stumbled across her Contentment Challenge. And let me tell you, God immediately placed it on my heart that this was something I too, needed to consider.

You see, I've been struggling lately. And I mean really deep down to the core kind of struggling. I have this little voice in my head and heart that tells me I deserve whatever I want, whenever I want it. I see what others around me have and while I know in my soul that it's not right to covet, I do. My identity can often get caught up in what the world wants for me, rather than what the Lord wants for me. Ultimately, I want to feel free from the need to have material possessions in order to make myself feel like I am important, or worse, trying to be someone I'm not.

So today, I've decided to participate in the Contentment Challenge. Our recent move has had me wanting to refocus my life on what's important. I've wanted to clean out and start fresh. I realize I don't need anything else, in fact, I already have a lot, well...I actually have too much! (think moving a house into an apartment). So I think this is the perfect time of year to take a break from frivolously shopping for myself. 

I have done a lot of thinking and praying about the challenge and have a lot of very exciting opportunities and goals for the coming months. So naturally I'm hoping that having this extra free time from shopping will help me really work towards those goals. Below are a few things I'd really like to focus more energy on.

- Organizing our new home

- Spending more time with the Lord

- Reading more books

- Finding a job

- Saving more money

If you're interested, you can read more in Nancy's post here about her heart leading up to the Contentment Challenge and her post here for the guidelines she felt were necessary. As Nancy mentions, we should keep in mind that these aren't hard and fast rules, they are guidelines. The goal isn't to be legalistic. If there are real needs be all means we should take care of them, I'm planning ahead for a few things I know will come up and I'll still be working on small projects around the new place. What this doesn't mean; however, is that I need that cute top I just happened to find while I was aimlessly perusing the aisles of Target (believe me, I do it, something about that store seems to suck me in, but no fear ladies, we can still love Target and not let it rule over us). I will still make necessary purchases for work purposes and upcoming projects, but I will doing my best to stay away from clothing, accessories and shoes!

Below is an outline of Nancy's Contentment Challenge that I've adapted a bit.

The Contentment Challenge 
We will give up shopping for clothes, accessories, shoes, and "stuff" , to focus our hearts and minds on the root of true contentment. We will actively pursue fulfilling activities that will replace our addiction to material things.

The Guidelines:

• For the next 10 days, your homework is the following: prepare your heart, organize your closet, and make any necessary purchases that you might need during these months. - I will be working on re-organizing my closet and remixing outfits using existing items in my wardrobe. I know I will most likely need to purchase a few items for an upcoming job, but since I don't know about it for sure yet, I'll continue the challenge then pray about it and then set a limit on what I can or cannot purchase as that time approaches.

• Choose 1-3 inspiring books to read during this time. - I will be purchasing Jesus Calling, 1000 gifts and Kisses from Katie. I have an on-going list of a few other books I'd like to read as well, so I'll set some money aside for those if I find that I'm quickly making my way through books. However, I won't purchase them brand new, I'll try to borrow or buy them on super sale from Half Price Books or Amazon.

• Gifts are okay! - I love giving gifts. In fact it makes my heart feel so full to give gifts to others, more so than buying gifts for myself. I will continue to be generous and give gifts to others. And if I am gifted something, I will graciously receive it.

• Necessities are okay! If you drop and break your phone, please go get a new one! If you lose your glasses, buy a new pair. Just don't start justifying new purchases for items that you already have. ("I really NEED this bathing suit, even though there are 8 in my closet already.")

• You must actively pursue something - anything - that replaces your tendency to buy stuff. Begin thinking about something you love or a hobby you've always wanted to do, and make preparations to actually do it. - you can see my goals for this listed above.

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Here is the bottom line, in the words of Nancy (because I couldn't have said it better myself): "Here's the thing: People have done crazier things! They have given up much more of their lives and possessions for the Kingdom of God. I am called to live a life marked of love, contentment, and self-discipline for that matter, and we all have a choice: to stay comfortable, where we are, or to pursue a life worth living."

I haven't set a hard and fast deadline for the Contentment Challenge yet. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Nancy set her challenge for three months, but it has been on my heart to do a month for sure and pray about whether I should consider doing a total of two or three months. I will do my best to post updates on here periodically though.

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There is already a hashtag for the #contentmentchallenge, so be sure to check it out. I'll also be joining in, sharing victories and challenges I face along the way.

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