Gratitude Day 230

Wed., Mar. 13, 2019

Matthew 6:25 – (Jesus said,) “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes?

It all started because I was looking for a package of sausage in the chest freezer. And became side-tracked.

Our chest freezer isn’t huge. It doesn’t need to be for two people. We knew our three youngest grandkids would be staying overnight this past weekend. I wanted to see if there was a package of sausage in the freezer for breakfast.

There wasn’t one.

What did I find?  At least 18 packages of boneless chicken breast, two large packages of hamburger, several packages of pork loin or chops, three pork roasts two small lamb roasts and a package of heart and liver. (Why? Why do we have these?) This was just the meat. There were multiple containers of our favorite sweet corn recipe, an ice cream bucket of rhubarb, a few containers from frozen beans as well as tomatoes, a bucket of ice cream, four loaves of bread and two large packages of ice. There were two packages of pork shanks that I kept out to make soup. I found a couple packages of bacon but no sausage. And, some other things I have already forgotten.

All for two people. And this didn’t include the fridge freezer.

Now with an empty freezer, I reorganized everything. I also made a pact: no more buying meat until we had eliminated what was in the freezer. Period.

I know. There could have been a lot more. There has been much, much more. But how did we go from a nearly empty freezer after the holidays to this? Rather easily, I must say.

Back in the kitchen, I opened the pantry. It’s pleasantly-plump full. Honestly, I don’t have a lot of kitchen pantry space. Our kitchen is moderate-sized. Having limited cabinet space encourages me to be thoughtful about what food I keep on hand. While I want to be prepared, I don’t want the kitchen cupboards look like they could run the local food pantry.

Standing by the pantry door open, I also decided to not buy any unnecessary food during Lent. I will shop the freezer and pantry when preparing meals. I will intentionally use up what I have before buying a more food, as much as I can. I will simplify the pantry and my life during Lent by choosing to eat what we have rather than simply buying more.

Yes, I know that we’ll need to buy eggs, milk and other basic necessities. I’m OK with this. What I’m not OK with? Simply buying more because it is on sale or it looks good or I could try a new recipe. I will intentionally choose to shop less and use more of what we already have.

Why is this a good thing to do during Lent? It’s a fasting of sorts; fasting from shopping and buying. Fasting from running to the store for a couple items. Fasting from adding more to the mix rather than trying to have less. It’s making a small sacrifice to symbolically acknowledge all that Jesus gave up for my sake.

Immediately, cooking from what we have officially began. I discovered that I had all of the ingredients to Hubby Rick’s favorite cherry fluff salad. And I made it. Those pork shanks? They became a great base for a pot of soup. We had enough ingredients to make a homemade fruit pizza while the grandkids were at our house over the weekend, which granddaughter Ellie proclaimed as, “So good. Really, seriously, so, so, so good.”

And I sent the leftovers with them.

I find myself drawn to a higher degree of simplicity this Lent. I want to be serious about eliminating some of the stuff in my life and enjoying less. I don’t expect to reduce my life to a couple suitcases of goods by the end of Lent. However, I am determined to live with what I have and be content.

It is so easy for us to worry. We worry about money, our health, our families, our jobs. Can you imagine what we could do in this world if we took all of our unnecessary worry and turned it into positive energy to advance helpful change?

Will we run out of food before this experiment is over? I highly doubt it. If so, we’ll deal with it then. What am I not going to do? Worry about it. Rather, I plant to put that energy into finding creative ways to creative fun dishes with what we have.

We can refurbish little parts of our lives when we make intentional choices to do with less. Use what we have. Bless others with what we no longer want or use. I’m confident that God will continue to speak to me this Lent. I can’t wait to discover what else I will learn about myself.

For the inspiration to shop the freezer and pantry first, I am grateful.

Lord God – forgive me for the many times I have mindlessly acquired and bought. May I see this Lent as an opportunity to live with less and worry less. I pray you will continue to inspire us daily.  Amen.

Blessings –

Dianne

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