Needs versus wants, good to ponder

Ahhh...the joy of sleeping in! J and I are sleeping in the same room and he didn't wake up until 9:30 this morning. This was good since the alarm kept going off and I couldn't figure out how to stop it so I kept getting woken up. (Next time I'll just unplug it but I was just too tired to think about that.)

We got a scare today with news that my older sister Laurie went into the hospital at 3 in the morning after not feeling right. I took some time to pray since this was unnerving and then also prayed with J and just as I was finishing he joined me in saying "amen". Laurie's kids were dropped off in the afternoon and my sister Amy was gone so I was in charge of the 5 kids. To do something other than watch TV, I had the idea to pick a picture out of a coloring book and color one for Aunt Laurie. Everyone was really serious about it, even J. I really hope it's a blessing to her. Thank the Lord we found out everything was alright, but they wanted to keep her overnight for observation. The two boys took a nap and the rest of us went for a swim once Amy got home.

I was able to catch some quiet time and was going to read my book To Live is Christ but then I found some notes I took from a speaker who came to my MOPS group in early spring. I really enjoyed going through the notes and taking time to look up the scriptures and think. Her focus was on looking at the scriptures and as we read asking ourselves, "What does this tell us about the Lord?" and "What does this tell us about how to live?" Especially, what is our attitude toward possessions. She shared the importance of this for ourselves, but passing it along to our children as well. A main point was truly focusing on what we NEED, not just getting more things. Also surrendering our impulse to buy everything we WANT but to pare that down and say "can I really do without this?" If so, I don't really need to buy it. This was really helpful to me since I've been ordering a lot of things from the internet lately at random and not giving much thought to much purchases. It's definitely coming from more of an "I want" versus having truly thought it over and asking if I really need it or having prayed about it.

The verses today were: my
Matthew 6:33 Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.
John 18:36 Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.
Matthew 3:2 Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.