Proverbs 31:14 "She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar."
The last few weeks we've taken more of a spiritual take on this verse. This week I'm going to take more of a physical take.
When I think of this verse literally, I picture a woman, a mother, a wife. She wakes up while it's still dark out, showers, dresses and puts on her shoes for her long journey. She isn't tired, but excited. She isn't dreading her day, but energized for it! She heads out on her long journey across the fields, across the deserts, across the mountains until she comes to town. She examines every fruit, every veggie, and every piece of meat while carefully choosing only the best, freshest and leanest! If she cannot find what she is looking for, she continues on her journey until she does. She is wise about her findings, picky about what she takes back to her family, and practical about what is needed. Sometimes her hunt for the best can take an entire day, and sometimes it only takes hours.
I remember back in the day before I had 4 children. I could get up for work, work till 5, then head to the grocery store, post office, bank and 5 other places within an hour! Now, it is an ALL DAY affair!
I've had to get a little more picky about some foods since I've had children, less picky about others, and wise about the amount of money we are willing to spend in order to feed our family. I spend more time clipping coupons, and looking at sale papers and plotting out our journey to get our necessities than I do fixing my hair and putting on make up anymore!
I for one know how painful those long grocery store trips can be with little one's. I can honestly say that some of those trips have given me the privilege of knowing the pain Christ felt on his journey to Golgotha where he was crucified! Oh how many times I've been in a store with unruly children and I just want to crawl in a hole from all the piercing looks and screams, and sounds of broken spaghetti sauce on the ground. I just have to remind myself that Christ's journey was longer and his pain and suffering was far beyond what mine is when I go grocery shopping! At least I know he is there beside me the hole time and won't give me anymore than I can handle!
The last three-four weeks we've eaten take out for dinner almost EVERY day! Now we never went anywhere that we didn't have a coupon for, or where they weren't offering free kids meals and it was still at least 15-$20.00 per meal. I had a baby, 5 weeks ago and for the last three-four weeks I was still recovering and did not have the energy to make dinner! It became so much easier for me to just go grab something! Now here it is 5 weeks later and I feel greasy, and tired and just gross from all the fast food! My girls (while they love a good chicken nugget meal) are sensitive to certain foods making them hyper, unable to sleep, and just irritable depending on what they eat. So for the last three-four weeks, yes meals have been easier on ME, but they have been harder on everything and everyone else! We've spent over 250.00 a week on eating out, that is 600.00 more a month that we normally spend! My children have been in a lot of trouble for not obeying, and not going to bed. They've been up some nights till 11:00pm, 12:00pm and sometimes 1:00am.
Life for us is so much better when we take that 1 day a week journey to the grocery store and run all our errands and be done with it! Sure we start at 10:00 in the morning loading up all 4 kids, and we don't get home until after 8:00pm, but the rest of the week my girls are not in trouble, and go to bed when they are suppose to! Not to mention we have a lot more money to use for other things!
I believe what God is trying to tell us here is that even though things are more convenient, doesn't make them better for us! We can't be selfish because we don't feel like standing in the kitchen for 30 minutes whipping up some mac & cheese and hot dogs for our family if it will save us a $20.00 per meal! (I'm so guilty of this!) If we need to take that extra hour or two a week and clip coupons, look them up online and print some off in order to save some extra money for our family and be good stewards of our money that God has trusted us with, so be it! What ever length you have to go to, to bring the best to your family, it will be totally worth it in the end! And even now days there are so many resources online to help with these little things. (I'll list my favorites at the end.)
So ladies, your challenge this week is to make an action plan. Do you need to order sunday papers to get coupons? Do you need to shop once a week, once every 2 weeks, or once a month even?(LOVE freezer cooking!!) Do you need to do a monthly meal plan and shopping list and stick to it? Whatever it is that you need to do in order to eat better, and save some money lets do it this week! Head over to the discussion forum on the facebook page and share some meal plans, recipes, or coupon tips!
~Hugs and prayers this week!
***Check out these websites***
http://www.thegrocerygame.com/con__WhatIsTheGroceryGame.cfm
http://www.couponmom.com/
http://e-mealz.com/
http://www.menus4moms.com
http://organizedhome.com/freezer-cooking/freezer-cookbook-recipes
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-07-03T16%3A21%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7
http://www.redplum.com
http://www.cincysavers.com/
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