WE LIKE OUR MONEY TOO MUCH.
HOW is it that anyone can pay 170 bucks for a pair of pants? not tooting my own horn, but i can't even imagine spending that much on clothing this year. to be honest, i don't think mark and i combined have or plan on spending that much on clothing this year...and we can definitely use it!
there may be some resentment in that mark can totally use a new pair of jeans...and hey, maybe so can i. or else, i can just lose weight and fit into my others. but there is more anger in the fact that there are actual people out there laying that much money down on a brand. and every month money on a new pair of shoe/s. people that i know aren't rich. and sadly enough, there are even the people that admire them for that.
i'm not going to say people shouldn't buy quality items that last. i'm not going to say that people shouldn't be able to indulge every once in awhile with the money that they've earned. but the frustrating part about it is these people sporting 170 dollar pants and probably never wearing the same pair of shoes twice probably have never and probably will never give a cent to charity. it is so frustrating because there are kids all over the world who can't afford a pair of jeans or shoes...not even the brands that brand whores turn their noses up to.
since when is having a show collection too big to fit in your closet more admirable than putting shoes on kids who've never had a pair on their feet? since when is displaying a brand of shoes more beautiful than a picture of a child you are sponsoring?
i don't want to seem self righteous or as if all my money goes to charity. i will be the first to admit that i've never given much to a charity before, even though it is, one day, something i'd like for mark and i to be able to do regularly. and once we have more than enough to buy food and pay all our bills, it is definitely something we'd like to look into.
how much money are we so quick to blow on new hair cuts and make up, new shoes and tattoos...while there are people on the other side of the world starving and without clothes. hell, you actually don't have to go very far to find a starving child. and i write this last paragraph to even myself. i know we can't fix it all. i know God is in control and the world suffers as it does because of man and his sin. but how can we celebrate exhuberant meaningless purchases when there are children dying because they don't even have enough to eat once a day?
i don't know.
as i write this i am feeling conviction. mark and i eat out every week. i just bought new eye shadow and eye liner because i "needed" them. but did i really? we buy things we could live without every week. four dollar coffees, fifty dollar haircuts, hundred dollar shoes. am i justified to point out the person who spends 170 bucks on something they could get for 75% cheaper to serve the same purpose...when mark and i may also do that just on a much lower level?
like the person who robs a bank of millions of dollars and the person who robs a corner store of a pack of gum. i know one does more damage than the other, but does it really matter which sin is more greater? or is it not even a matter of sin being greater than the other, but the conviction that both should have of their sin? i may have answered my own question.