SATURDAY SHOPPING AND STUFF (#6)

HOW MUCH ARE WE SPENDING ON COFFEE AND STUFF?

Okay this is not going to be a sermon, so I won't preach (unless i'm preaching to the choir), but I was just out nosing around town while the kids were at birthday parties and spending time with their friends and noticed something--the long, long lines at Starbucks (Okay, get the band-aids out, I might have just stepped on some toes til they bled, but it's going to be okay:)). I'll be the last one to blast someone about the little luxuries like coffee, TEA!!, chocolate habits, purses, extras for our cars, etc. I don't do all of these, but everyone knows about my TEA. Anyhooty, just stop here for a few seconds (it might take some of us minutes to add this up depending on the habit), and try to come up with a dollar figure for what we spend per month, then per year for these habits or luxuries. Oh my Word!! I can hear some of you going, "Yeah..., and?" But some of us are thinking, "Uhh, is it really that much?!! Boy what I can be doing with that much money!"

When I saw the lines at Starbucks, I wondered, "Are these people regulars (probably), first-timers just getting into the habit, every-now-and-theners, or what?" For the regulars, how regular is regular? Do they get the same thing every time? What's the average amount someone would spend on a cup of latte or coffee? Is there any thought behind the purchases? Do they have an actual coffee budget? I have a friend I went out to lunch with the other day who admitted to me that she stops at Starbucks twice a day, every day. She said that it took us going out to lunch and talking about something (I can't remember what it was now) for her to stop and realize how much she was spending on that habit every day. She says that just the Mon-Fri habit alone was over $50.00. $50.00!!!! Yall, am I aghast because I'm poor or is this my stewardship needle bending heavily toward "can you give yourself a little treat every now and then because it's in the budget (life's little pleasures that God allows and gives us the privilege of having on this road), but consult God about wanting you to do something else more meaningful with the rest of HIS money?' Or is it both with me? This all made me go back and look to see where I might be spending on luxuries (that's what it's called you guys, when it is not a necessity for life--I know we don't always like to hear that though) and pray for wisdom on whether that's where my money should go, even if I can afford the luxury.


Don't get me wrong, and don't stop reading here. I don't think we should go around to prove something by making ourselves do without things that I'm convinced God allows us to be privy to. Life won't be easy for any of us all of the time, and the Christian's life will come with all kinds of trials and sometimes persecution, but again, I'm convinced that God has created and allowed man to create some wonderful things in this life that He allows us to enjoy, BUT...can we enjoy those things and be grateful for the privilege and then re-focus and look around to see if there really are other places or things our money would be so much more useful for? As for me, I'd like to be more conscious of this than I already am.


What I think is cool is that there are so many "affordable, little luxuries." This is good because there are plenty of very expensive habits that we could be getting ourselves into, if we chose to and could afford it. So, I guess I'm just wondering are we conscious sometimes of what we're spending and if so, have we decided for sure that what we're doing is "okay", or can we see where we may need to do something a little different? Just a thought...