I had a huge shock.
After deciding to go part-time, even as the sole breadwinner of our family, my husband and I decided to keep track of our monthly expenditure.
As the days went by, my heart sank as the numbers climbed up. Clearly, we needed to try harder and live within our new budget.
As we made tighter adjustments to our life choices, we also had to discern- if at times, we needed to let go. To give freely, to luxuriate in little things, to say, “It’s okay,” and “let’s be a blessing.”
Because perhaps, having enough is a mindset.
We all want more money because we want more things. We want more things because we think it’ll make us happier.
But what if could be happier without more things. What if we had more things without more money?
God likes to mess things up a little, at times.
As I look at this photo, I realized that while I felt sad not being able to take my kids out to Udders for ice cream as often as I liked anymore, we’d found a little hole-in-the-wall bakery that sells old-style-street-breads and tea for a quarter of the price.
As I look at this photo, I realize I was wearing hand-me-down lululemons- an unexpected gift recently from a pile of hand-me-downs that fit perfectly, just as my old clothes were wearing thin.
As I look at this photo and see my firstborn’s smile, I realize there are many things more money can help us secure but our children don’t quite care about half as much.
As I reflected on the different choices we made over the weekend, the photos showed me the smiles on their faces, telling me- that above all, it was the simple things in life that mattered most to them, like our time together eating cold cream puffs while I had my Teh-C-kosong (local tea with milk).
If you, like me, feel guilty at times for not being able to provide more for your loved ones, remember this- What they do want is our presence, our undivided attention, our time that says, “I’m here for you.”
While it costs nothing, that-above all, is priceless.