What You Have Should Affect Where You Are: Day 86; 100 Days to Brave

Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever mange- 

to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. 

If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, 

gaining life that is truly life. 

-1 Timothy 6: 18-19 MSG (emph. mine)

In our married life, Big Strong Man and I have lived in several different locations, and the size of our homes has always changed.

Like the super-small and precious Indiana lake house we lived in as newly-weds. The laundry room was located inside the bathroom and...well, let me paint you a picture:

New linens, towels, and laundry...piled high on the floor. 

Blocking the doorway and preventing it from closing. 

A sick newly-wed (moi!) and stomach issues. 

It was a terrible scene, one for the horror movies. 

My husband of less than a week found me, 

lying naked in the fetal position, next to our toilet one morning. 

Welcome to married life!!! 

This was us at our PA wedding...
one week later, we had an IN wedding as well!

From Indiana, we moved down south to exotica North Carolina and lived in a beautiful apartment where we paid a fortune to swim at night and fight like crazy people for screens in our windows, which was not a given- and that was crazy town!

After the apartment, we moved across town to a community which was way above our pay-grade and yet -miraculously- ended-up as the primary owners of a huge house. Although it was great to have a classroom, two guests bedrooms, and more than enough bedrooms for each of our three sons (although not all of these things at once. What do you think we were? The Kardashians? The Duggars?), it was so much work to maintain and when we moved to the magical land of Pennsylvania, we desperately wanted a smaller house. 

Why the walk down memory lane? Because I realized that it didn't matter the size of our home, it was the welcome our home offered to ourselves and others. Sure, when our house was super-sized, there was a lot we could do there, (Like the time Nikila Kolof came to our house to teach us about Vemma -which taste like liquid Flintstone vitamins, but, you know?), but it also held captive a lot of energy and mental space.

This home of ours here, this sweet, small, yellow house, it affects where we are. It affects our mental space, our income, and our desire to cut-back.

More than that, it affects who we are, here.

We are in PA. 

We are in this neighborhood. 

We are involved in this community. 

And it is so important that this place is better off for having us. 

Imagine if we were a burden to the town. 

A burden to society. 

This is so not a political post, hear me out. 

Instead, what if we all, regardless of the size of our homes and wallets, just chose to affect the area we are in for the better? We can make a positive impact. We can chose the better things. We can be the helpers, the welcomers, the open our door-ers.

"Because I want the places I go to be touched by God's love."

Me too, Annie. Me too.        

Be Brave: 

Make a list of the ways you want to be courageously generous.