Minimalism & Slow Living

I’ve been feeling God leading me to get used to having less. I remember literally being moved to tears while listening to one of my favorite YouTubers speaking on her journey with minimalism. My tears the evidence of how strongly God was confirming that I needed to do the same. Suddenly I began to feel weighted down by all of my STUFF and I’m not just talking about the things my husband and I owned but also the feelings of inadequacy I had been struggling with since leaving my job the year prior and the disappointment I was feeling that the blessing of finally being a homeschooling mom (which is something I had prayed for) hadn’t been giving what it was supposed to and then there was the worry over what others thought of me being someone who left a high paying corporate job to start a business that wasn’t flourishing.

 I had been praying and fasting about what I needed to do, I had been crying out to God about why what I thought was an opportunity that he had placed before wasn’t manifesting. In that moment I felt God responding and He was telling me to stop, stop working so hard for things that didn’t matter and to work harder for Him. He began to help me understand that I needed to shift my focus and reprioritize my life. I was so stuck on the quantity of my life that I wasn’t focusing on the quality of my life. So listening to someone talk about how there was a better way to live sounded like a life line and in that moment I felt the Holy Spirit providing the confirmation.

 I had no idea what that would mean for me at the time, I had only heard about “minimalism” and “slow living” a few times in passing but never took it seriously I mean why would I want to give away things I worked so hard to obtain but that was the point, I was making all about “I” and not about God and what he had done for me and I wasn’t making space for the new things he wanted to do for me in this new season.

 So I’m sure you know what I did next right? That’s right you guessed it, I began to make excuses.  I starting saying things like well that might work for her but I have kids and they have stuff, imagine my surprise when I realized that many people with families are living the less is more way of life. I began thinking I don’t know if my husband will be okay with me just getting rid of our stuff and then I realized that was a poor excuse because why would he care about me getting rid of my own stuff, I could always start there and see what happens. At that point I was out of excuses so then I began to bargain with God and I would pray things like, “well let me get through this week we have a lot going on and then maybe I can start over the next school break, I would have some help with the kids being home.”

 God’s simple response was, why put off tomorrow what you can do today? This was the point when I knew this had to be His will for me because I have been known to procrastinate and yet 24 hours later I found myself de-cluttering and re organizing not only our bedroom but my closet and our family room as well. This is how I started my journey into minimalism, slow living and letting go of all the physical and mental clutter that had been distracting me from the life I wanted and the purpose God had designed for me.

Now that I am on this journey I plan to share updates on my IG & YT page, if this interests you please stay tuned. 

“Sometimes, minimizing possessions means a dream must die. But this is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, it takes giving up the person we wanted to be in order to fully appreciate the person we can actually become.” Joshua Becker