I don’t understand what it is about the poverty mentality among Christians. We use fewer squares of toilet paper and squeeze toothpaste until our fingers hurt. We borrow things from people to avoid having to buy them, and we buy just about everything used.
Don’t get me wrong. I lived this way my whole life until two years ago. Then I stepped back and saw what I was doing. I also saw unethical behavior in homeschool circles. I was a part of a group of hundreds of homeschool moms online, and they were copying copyrighted material to avoid buying the products of sweet homeschool businesses who they were harming. I left the group immediately, after a fellow homeschool mom blew the whistle on them and got thrown out of the group.
What is wrong with us? Don’t we think that God can provide for our needs? Do we think that stinginess is godly? Because frugality is NEVER mentioned in Scripture. The Proverbs 31 woman dresses her family in scarlet and gorgeous clothes. She is not scrimping and ripping people off. No, she’s industrious, and God provides for her abundantly.
Even through all the years of having no money, God provided lavishly for me. Sometimes He provided the money for me to buy new curriculum. God is God. He owns the universe. Every single penny you have belongs to God. God is able to do abundantly beyond all that you could ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20) Let’s not limit God.
Yes, we need to not spend more than we earn, and we should save money so that we can pay for car repairs and other things. I’m not talking about that. I’m astounded at the amount of Christians who have an enormous amount of money at the bank, but physically suffer because they have their thermostat set to extremely cold temperatures in the winter. They are frugal because they pride themselves in being frugal, as if God is glad that they are causing their families to suffer when they have the money to make their families warm.
It reminds me of Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol, who didn’t realize until it was almost too late, what really mattered in life. You don’t know when your life will be required of you. Why die with a huge pile of money beside you?
