Have you ever looked at a person and although their physical appearance hasn’t changed, they don’t look the same? You know friends and family members, that you’ve known forever, begin to talk and you start wondering who are they? They look the same but they don’t act or sound like the person you once knew. Kids start acting crazy in the streets and at school when you know you didn’t raise them that way. Spouse comes home talking foolish and you are still trying to figure out what happened. With the stress of the world today, especially financially, a lot of people are changing and don’t even realize it. Killings, robbing, stealing and suicides are on the rise because folks can no longer provide for their families, so they take drastic measures to do so. I know that whoever you are will never admit this, but there was a time when you thought about suicide. You thought the world and your family would be better off without you, but baby, I am here to tell you that God has a purpose for your life and if he wanted you to leave this world, he wouldn’t allow it by your own hands because Ecclesiastes 7:17 says “Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool–why die before your time?”
Yea, I know that things are hitting you hard right now, but hold on to God’s words for Proverbs 10:27 say “The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.” I am a believer that God will never leave nor forsake us. When I look at my grandmother and I think about all the things they endured growing up and how they survived with raising 5+ children, I can appreciate all the things that I go through now. See, when you had less, you had fewer problems but the more you add the more problems comes along. It’s just like you having 2 books in your arms, you are able to walk upright just fine without pain in your back, but add about 5 more books and you add more weight and now your back begins to hurt and your knees start shaking and you begin to wobble when you walk. See, your shoulders are only capable of handling the weight that your legs can support. If you know that you can only lift 25lbs, then why are you trying to show off and lift 50? Trying to prove something to folk will cause your legs and back to give out. You go and get this big, expensive house and now you’re working so many hours to pay for it that you barely get to see it or enjoy it. Now, you are stressed out, got aches in your body and tossing and turning in your sleep because you are trying to hold on to something you know you can’t afford. If you spend all of your time working to save, when will you enjoy it? There isn’t a thing wrong with saying you made a mistake and then correcting it. The problem is making a mistake and then acting like you didn’t because it’ll soon catch up with you. You know like the repo man, foreclosure, credit card debt and/or bankruptcy. Matthew 6:19-20 says “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
I am not saying that there is anything wrong with enjoying what your money can buy but if you know you can’t afford a $40 shirt then don’t go get it. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses because they are struggling too, they just do a great job at hiding it well. You can look just as good in the $7 shirt you got from Wal-Mart, if you dress it up nicely. No one has to know how much you spent on the clothes and shoes you wear and if your friends would be honest, they don’t have it all together either. You are trying to out-do one of your co-workers who could care less about the cost of a pair of jeans but because she dresses like she got money in the bank, you go broke trying to keep up. Trying to impress folk will have you staying at a homeless shelter. I know that you don’t want the kids to know that you are struggling and they don’t have too if you keep them out of grown folk business. So what if you can’t afford to get them all the things on their Christmas list, most of the stuff they don’t need anyway. If you weren’t so busy running to 3 different fast food restaurants because each of the kids wants something different to eat, you’d realize that in this city alone 1 in 4 children go to bed hungry every night? I can remember growing up in momma’s house and if you didn’t eat what was fixed, you went to be hungry. Now, we give the kids choices like they work every day and we have to wonder why we are robbing Peter to pay Paul.
What is wrong with you? Stop spending every dime you got trying to please folk because it’s not about the clothes and shoes you wear, the car you drive or the house you stay in that will get you to Heaven but it’s about what’s in your heart. Jeremiah 17:10 says “But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.” So stop allowing earthly wants to stress you out and change you into a person that no one wants to be around. If you constantly complain about everything, you’ll eventually be all by yourself because who wants to listen to a grown person whine? Stop trying to act like you got it all together in front of friends because if the truth be told, they are having it just as bad but they, too, are afraid to say it. If you don’t have the green then you don’t have the means, so stop acting like it. Yea, I know you want steak for dinner but you got a ground beef budget, so eat it because it’s all the same beef!
Lakisha, the Author 