Less is More

This is the second month that my family has been living on financial support. It is a quite scary and yet exciting journey to wait for random checks to come in the mail. Siew talked to her friend who had been living on support for seven years and she said that she never got used to this lifestyle but just walked step by step, faith by faith.

One of the weird things about living like this is that we have a lot less but we feel like we have a lot more. We “made” a lot less in the past two months compares to what I get paid before. But back then, we had to constantly borrow from my savings and always felt like not having enough. Now, we can actually save a little and give away to others who have more needs than us. We are very aware of God’s abundance.

When you have only $20 rather than $100 to buy groceries, you only buy the necessary things rather than what “looks good.” Siew starts to bake and create delicacies that she never thought she could make before. We trade exploring the neighborhood with going to Disneyland and playing creative games with the kids rather than buying new toys. We actually get to know each other much better this way. We still take the kids out to eat sometimes, but the occasion is a lot less than before. By going out less, the kids are a lot more grateful and celebrated the times that we do get to go out and eat. Treats are treats again. Blessings are blessings again. $20 can go a distance that we never knew before.

When the material things decrease and the spiritual presence of God increases, we become a lot more grateful. That gratitude is what money cannot buy. That gratitude is what makes less more.