(Stewardship 10) Simple, Abundant Living as a family wherever you are

Even though we live in the city, we are constantly learning to practice simple abundant living as much as we can. By faith and His providential care, we bought our current fixer-upper house (Ohio) with no debt, which gives us flexibility to now go. For a family of five (about to be six), before my husband’s teaching job ended, we had been living on one part-time income for over ten years. Even though we have explored other streams of income, our major source of income was still from hubby’s part-time teaching job. By God’s grace, we have some margin to explore and seek His way of provisions in other ways for the past year. Yes, this means we were able to live out of savings and other small streams of income for almost a year at this point. We didn’t plan to go on this long but looking back we see God’s gentle push for us to continue to seek His righteousness and think outside of the box. Our prayers have become more sincere and intense to seek His will to be done! Isn’t the process more eternally valuable than simply an answered prayer? The Lord knows what we need to strengthen our faith in His care. 

As products of consumerism, we had felt the need and temptation to find work to put food on the table. Month after month, doubts can come and confuse our vision. Our savings account is going lower and lower as we shop for basic needs. The pressure is real but not scary.  We are confronted with real choices to make. Should we go out of the home and find work after all those years believing and following His lead in ministries as a family?  Yes, if that is what a family needs to live. This is probably the only choice many families have to make. There is a time to do something we don’t enjoy as life needs that to happen. But if at all possible we want to plan for how to have meaningful work as a family and avoid just working for the money. I pray we don’t have to go through life desperate enough to just simply grab a job. Just like we don’t want to grab junk food when in a hurry. With some planning and prep, we still can have yummy homemade food with a low cost. A lot of people don’t have the luxury of thinking for themselves and seeking God’s will. Life is simply a survival game. 

But Jesus has come to give life, life to the full. We are not to simply survive but to thrive in Him no matter the circumstances. Feeding and taking care of our own family is a God-given responsibility. It will be a sacrifice for a season if needed for at least one parent to leave their children to work. This is especially true when God gives specific callings to certain work. If a parent needs to go for a mission for a time, those who left behind can still pray for the one sent and serve as one team. Serving the Lord as a family certainly does not require all members to be physically present at all times. Even when we are called for one project or ministry as a family team, different members are free to exercise their individual gifts for the well-being of the whole team. 

However, just like the overuse of medical care, the default for one or even both parents to go out to work to bring food on the table is happening too quickly. How much food and clothes do we acturally need? What kind of food or clothes? Can we cut down on restaurant meals, or other treats? Can we DIY paid services, like fixing appliances or having a haircut at home? Do our children have to sign up for many programs to keep up with their peers? How do we budget our vacation? If leaving home to work is a necessity, how many hours away? For how long? If we seek the Truth, we need to seek the Truth in all aspects in our lives, not just to get the right Sunday school answers. God cares about our hearts to serve and follow Him as we exercise our free will to follow Him. 

So the real question about work is do we make a living around our work, or do we make life to labor in love in serving others by following His lead? A job is supposed to be a holy calling, not simply a money-generator. Another word for “job” is vocation. Sadly, many people nowadays can’t wait for a vacation from their vocation. God has designed work to be a holy worship for His glory as we exercise the gifts He has given. Is your job dehumanizing? Or another way to put it, is your job replaceable by a robot? If so, watch out if you plan to stay at this job long. God has given us creativity to plan, think, will and act. We are to fear the Lord in all we do with our whole heart not to numb our souls. 

In seeking His provision and calling for our family, our standard is to consider the work we will enjoy doing even if we are not paid. Even though, in hindsight, I see the past year as an unplanned God-given Sabbatical year spiritually, we never stopped serving or working. It takes faith and discipline to stay pure in our thoughts and deeds. We don’t work simply to get paid. We can lose our soul if we simply work for the money. Don’t get me wrong, it is rewarding and sustainable to be paid for honest hard work. In our case, we enjoyed different roles of volunteering positions as He called. God has provided every need abundantly even without a major income. We attempted to work with a low paid university language program. Even though they wanted us to come, due to outside issues the plan fell through. Through this our hearts are at a better place to know we have the freedom to choose work with lower pay. We chose to consider the university job due to its countryside location, and being closer to where our existing network is. We started with things we know but realized homesteading is still a higher calling. We are delighted by His clear leading and redirecting as we let go of our human plans.

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Here are links to all 16 posts in the “Stewardship” journal from Elyse’s Journal written around 3/25/2023. (The link will not work until the post is posted.)
1. Seeking His will to take back the stewardship of the land (Rob’s Introduction)
2. I. “Who”: Rescued from the System
3. II. “Fear the Lord” and “He will instruct”: Shake-up 1: Work System
4. “Fear the Lord” and “He will instruct”: Shake-up 2a: Medical System
5. “Fear the Lord” and “He will instruct”: Shake-up 2b: Birth System
6. “Fear the Lord” and “He will instruct”: Chain of Spirit-led decisions
7. “Fear the Lord” and “He will instruct”: Shake-up 3: Education
8. “Fear the Lord” and “He will instruct”: Aliens and Strangers in the world
9. “Fear the Lord” and “He will instruct”: Freedom
10. Simple, Abundant Living as a family wherever you are
11. Called to the Land
12. III. Land – “Inheritance”
13. Land – “Inheritance” (continued)
14. IV. How (resources)
15. Resources
16. Conclusion