Update

Just wanted to give another update on my shopping "fast". If you remember, I posted a pledge back in October to not shop for an entire year...if you don't, here's the link to that pledge: http://rmbmajor.blogspot.com/2011/10/cleaning-out-my-closet.html

At any rate, today is January 28th and since that pledge, these are the clothing items I have purchased for myself:
1) a cocktail dress for my husbands Christmas party, and shoes that matched.
2) a pair of pj's for myself and my mom from Target for Christmas morning


If I could only relay how big of a deal this is for me. I still have several months to go to meet my goal, and recently my husband and I set a goal of some debt payoff by the end of this year, so I have extended my pledge of no clothes shopping to go through the end of December 2012. I am really proud of myself, I can't tell you the doubt that I had going into this commitment at the beginning. But I am determined to meet this goal. I'm not saying there are not days that I would love to go cruise through the clothes at Loft..Dillards..Target...and just pick up a few things. I've even "window shopped" online and put stuff in a shopping cart, only to leave it there and shut the browser. Ultimately, I get to the point where I look at what I've got in there, and remind myself that I don't NEED any of it. My pledge is to only purchase the things that are necessity items during this time. I will admit, Christmas pj's were probably not a necessity. Christmas party dress was a necessity. The ones I had that would have worked were either summer time dresses or a few sizes too small. And of course, I picked a dress that none of my shoes matched.

Anyway...I am sticking with it, and am determined. I have donated quite a few items of clothing to local charities, and when this season is over and I transfer out my fall/winter clothes for the spring/summer ones, I will clean out again and donate those items. All that said, I still need prayers for this challenge. Prayers that I avoid setting myself up for temptation. One of the scriptures that I have been leaning on during this time is 1 Timothy 6:6-8 "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." My goal through this challenge is to learn to be content with what I have, and not focus on the things that I want, but the things that I need. That my family needs. It is a definite attitude adjustment, don't get me wrong. And I am not proud of myself when I recognize how many times I catch myself thinking, "I need some new jeans" or "I want some new long sleeve t-shirts", etc. I do NOT need jeans...I think I have about 20 pairs in my closet right now. Various sizes, mind you.

Contentment. This is my goal. Finding happiness in my relationship with God and my family, and not in material things. Where do you look for happiness that doesn't seem to fill the void?