Thought #3 on materialism ;With out stuff I couldn’t have made my cats a cat toys. My cat’s favorite toys are an old ladder that reaches the curly willow branches I’ve hung below my sky lights.                                                                                                                        Amy brought me two speakers. I’d been doing without. She said, “If I ever need them at my house I’ll come and get them.” John recently bought our first sewing machine. He and I have both sewn on 1950s machines but they have great limitations. John, being a guy and loving tools and machines, has decided the sewing machine is “HIS.”  It lives in his room and he gleefully hauls it out a few times a week for me to borrow. He’ll open the case for me and again says things like, “Do you see how they’ve improved this part?” Then he points to something else and says, “They didn’t even have this on my old machine.”
You may know John from previous blogs and know if he finds something wonderful he goes back and buys SIX more of them. We didn’t have the money, I DIDN’T HAVE THE ROOM for SEVEN SEWING MACHINES so he bought only one more.  Now Jillian, her sister, her Mom store it at their house. They needed one, we needed to store one. If our sewing machine breaks we could go get the one living with them.
I used to teach Jillian’s Mom in Sunday School. Both of our families were living N.E. Portland where the houses are big, fancy and OLD. I suppose there was someone living in that neighborhood that “thought” they OWNED their house but I never ran into them. Everyone there felt they were honored to borrow the house and be a steward over a piece of history. Each family saw an obligation to make at least one major improvement or restoration.
John’s thinking the plumber isn’t going to charge us a fee, because the water company insisted that we have a professional inspect the entire crawl space and look for leaks (that weren’t there). And the plumber inspected it twice. John hopes we’re NOT charged money by the plumber because he wants to buy the plumper a pair of FIRE HOSE PANTS as a thank you. John’s just crazy about these Duluth Fire Hose Pants with a life time guarantee! John does not want a pair himself, he doesn’t need a pair, he simply loves matching up a neat product to someone who needs it.
Having “stuff” is great. I need tools in order to work, invent, grow, created new ways of thinking, and to share. But having too much is a burden and mentally buries me. If I have too much stuff I have no new thoughts, and I enjoy life less. God filled the world with things, creatures, and space. I need balance and order and to know I never own things. I am responsible to be a good steward and share.  nancymauerman.com