HAVING TO HAVE IT

As I stood waiting on my mentor to finish talking, praying in my heart that the people would stop asking too many questions so we could go in and sit down, this lady walked up to me and asked if I knew where our mentor bought her dress from. I replied that I did not know but was a bit concerned that she had asked.

You see my mentor had come a long way and gone through so much but has been blessed through it all. She could afford to buy any kind of clothes she wanted, she had worked hard, she had made her sacrifices in life and I know she had one of those really classy and expensive ones on that day.

Close to seven years later, it was revealed that her husband had been cutting corners financially in the organization; he had misrepresented the organization and made away with some monies. When this was found out, he was sacked.

When this happened, I cast my mind back to the encounter I had with his wife years back. Were they both discontented and greedy? Is it possible they wanted more than they could afford at that time in their lives? Were they being pressured by the things they saw other people have? Did they think they had to “measure up” to their perceived expectations from people?

We must be careful not to fall prey to both internal and external pressures to always want more, it is very un-healthy and destructive.  Adverts must not become a snare for us, they always find more attractive and luring ways to get us to purchase even when we don’t need it or cannot afford it. When our friends, loved ones, neighbours or colleagues have something really nice, we can appreciate and compliment it without desiring it. We don’t have to have it.

Sometimes I have had to ask myself questions as to why I want something. Do I really need it? Is it something I can afford? If I do not have it will anything go wrong? My husband told me one time to put my wants in front of me for maybe three months and see if the desire still remained. Sometimes the desire remained but most of the time it just fizzled out.

Greed, discontentment, and lust for things are killers. When you begin to get pressured to have things, not because you need them but just because you must have them: the latest trends, in vogues, popular, then there is danger looming ahead. I know you must have seen or at least heard of someone or people who have gotten into serious troubles because of this. The desire to be like the Joneses, un-healthy comparisons and insatiability has led a lot of people to prison, hurt and even death.

Let us be wise, let us cut our coats according to our cloths, or better still less than our cloths, so that we can save something. The Only wise God says that “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children…” (Proverbs 13:22)  We should not eat up our tomorrow today.

My mentor taught to me live my life in the phase I’m in per time, he says that life is in phases and men are in sizes. And this has helped my view about possessions and saving and investing.

With God on your side, as you work and plan, the time will come when you can afford what you need and want, without any struggle.

Then he told them, “Be careful to guard yourselves against every kind of greed, because a person’s life doesn’t consist of the amount of possessions he has.”

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.