Here We Go Again

Life with God is never dull. Because every day He will take us to greater heights. He’ll allow circumstances into our lives that leave our weaknesses glaring in our faces. He’ll reveal our idols and test us beyond our endurance. All of this to teach us to walk in tune with His voice and let Him be our everything.

Lately, He’s been peeling back lots of layers in this girl’s life, beginning back in July when I said goodbye to Simple Saving Savvy for what I thought would be forever.

At that time, I shared with you…

It has become quite apparent to me that I simply do not have the time to maintain Simple Saving Savvy any longer. There is simply no way I can keep up the pace and creativity, still save money for my family and minister to my family.

And to be quite honest, I was so busy pursuing my vision instead of God’s, that I simply became burned out.

After praying about it for the past couple of months, I do not feel like God is saying stop altogether, but rather to go a different direction – the direction He had in mind all along, and that is to share my own journey – not try to be all things to all people in the money saving department.

Writing that post felt like having my heart ripped out of my chest. Simple Saving Savvy was my baby, my heart, but it was more than that. It had taken the place of God in my life. It had become an idol. And as idols always do, it took over my life, giving nothing back in return.

I found my worth and satisfaction in updating the blog, so I lived for it. I forsook my quiet time with God. I neglected my home and family. I became competitive with other frugal bloggers whose mission was completely different from the one God had given me. I wasn’t practicing “faithful stewardship through intentional living.”

I had become a hypocrite.

I truly believe God was testing me when He put it in my heart to walk away from Simple Saving Savvy. To see which I would choose: Him or it. He hadn’t removed the dream from my heart, but simply asked me to choose Him over the dream and then trust Him with the dream.

I am so glad I chose best over good.

God has shown me alot of things over the past several months:

1. I am not a homemaking blogger and I am not a money saving blogger. I am a stewardship blogger. I have no desire to write about all things homemaking or to post about scoring every sweet deal. I simply want to share how God is leading me to practice wise stewardship of time, money and creativity in my home.
2. I need accountability. Believe it or not, posting grocery deals and coupons and menu plans for you, holds me accountable to spending my household budget wisely. I have barely used a coupon since August and menu planning has been haphazard. My grocery bill has grown. Yikes!
3. God has not called us to homeschool, therefore I am blessed with lots of uninterrupted time during the week. With discipline and balance, there is no reason why I cannot maintain my home and a blog, and supplement our income a little as well.
4. I crave balance. I crave productivity. I was burnt out on Simple Saving Savvy because I had lost both, because I had given myself over to an idol.
5. I was trying to compete with every other money saving blogger to make everyone happy, but what I discovered is that most SSS readers love it because it ISN’T all that.

So I am happy to tell you beginning February 1, Simple Saving Savvy will be full speed ahead.

Over the month of January, I’ll be posting here and there, but mostly I’ll be working behind the scenes to streamline and become more organized. And Maria will be working to give SSS a fresh, new look.

I will no longer blog at Homemaking Unplugged, and will be discontinuing emailed updates. So be sure and sign up for Simple Saving Savvy emailed updates!