One year ago, Chad felt God calling our family to live our faith in a more radical way. We began to pray individually and together about what that meant. To be honest, I think we were tired of caring about what house we lived in, what car we drove, and how we could get to the next level of “success.” We were tired and although our faith taught us that those things do not bring happiness, joy or personal fulfillment, we did not see it clearly until last year. After several months of praying, we saw a film about minimalism and both of us knew our prayers had been answered.
We realized that we were already on the path of minimalism in our life in a holistic way. We have minimalized our eating. We have spent years simplifying our diet to accommodate our children’s food sensitivities. By simplifying, I mean eating pure foods that do not include additional man made additives. We try to eat as close to Mother Earth as possible. If she grows the food, we know our bodies are created to process the food for optimal energy! We also spent time in 2016 learning about meditation. I see this as a step in the minimalization process because in meditation, we learned to focus our mind on one thing instead of jumping around to 1000 ideas. We practiced non-judgement of ourselves as we acknowledge that this is a daily practice….practice. Now, we wanted to take the lessons learned internally in our body and mind and extend them out in our surroundings.
Immediately, I began to clean out our closets. Here are some journal notes I made over the weeks of giving clothes, decorations and furniture away.
–Great energy and excitement in getting rid of things!
–What if I need that someday?
–But this is nice stuff that I could never afford to buy again!
–Do I like to change out the decorations for the season or do I think I am supposed to do that because I grew up in a house where redecorating each season was important?
–What do I do with things that people gave me?
–Do I even notice this decoration anymore?
–Do I really believe in the God of Abundance who will provide if I have need or do I live in such a way where I affirm the God of Scarcity and need to cling to things just in case I need them someday?
–The clothes in my closet have space and room to breathe!
End result:
In 2017, we sold our 3,000 sq. ft. home and we are renting a 1700 sq. ft. home. We LOVE it except for missing our larger kitchen with all the counterspace for cooking! I am adjusting😊
We continue to hear the message, “Travel Lightly.”
If you have a story about Minimalizing, what thoughts or questions bubbled up for you during the process?
Amber Mattingly 
2 responses to “Minimalism”
Amber, this is awesome! When I moved to the Philippines, I had the same questions as you about “things” that needed to go. What if this missionary thing doesn’t work, some of these “things” are really nice & I won’t be able to buy again, and the list goes on. So very blessed for friends from church that “helped” me see that it was ok to let it go. Don’t miss understand, there were some items I refused to let go of and are in storage. I need to go back through those items & see if I still think I have to keep them. My faith level has grown so much being here in the Philippines and know now He will always provide my NEED! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! 😊
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Thank you for sharing your story! I feel so free by letting things ago but I do have my moments when I miss a few things. Also, don’t get me wrong in that I held on to everything that holds meaning and memory! We have a few boxes in the attic 😍.
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