Never underestimate the importance of abandoning crap you don’t need.
Encouragement is important in all areas of life, but especially when trying to live a life different than those around us.
Encouragement provides us with motivation to persevere. It invites us to dream dreams of significance for our lives. And it begs us to work diligently with optimism and promise.
Overcoming the pull of consumerism is a difficult challenge regardless of our stage in life. Simplicity requires encouragement. To that end, I hope you will find motivation in these articles below.
Each post was intentionality chosen to inspire simplicity in your life. For maximum effect, find a quiet moment this weekend and enjoy them with a fresh cup of coffee or tea.
Lessons From One Family’s Quest to Buy Nothing New for a Year | Chicago Tribune by Heidi Stevens. When you’re not buying things that are new, you have a different way of looking at things.
The Secret to a Simplified Schedule | No Sidebar by Melissa Camara Wilkins. Saying yes to the best stuff means saying no to everything else, even some really good things.
Why I Got Rid of the Toys | Dallas Moms Blog by Denaye Barahona. “The answer to my problem was having fewer toys, and picking the right toys.”
Man (Dis)connected: How Technology Has Sabotaged What It Means To Be Male | The Guardian by Stuart Jeffries. Boys now spend 44 hours in front of a TV, smartphone or computer for every half hour in conversation with their fathers.
kariane says
Less is more. Thank you for sharing.
We’re working on having less (stuff, busyness, and so on) in our lives so we can spend more time living and being and together. I’m writing about our efforts each week here: http://everydaymindfulliving.com/simplify-saturday/
Jo Ice says
I feel a need to add my “me, too!” of concern about the last article. Fathers are important, no doubt, but surely you could have found an article that says so without resorting to ridiculous gender stereotypes. It is difficult to process the main message when you’re sputtering with indignation about being told because you’re female you went to college to get a guy, or that men don’t write in diaries (I’m sure my journaling husband is a man — I don’t think he could have been fooling me for the last 31 years).
Love says
He was speaking of boys being forced to write in diaries in school. Being forced is the key.
Rebecca says
I am genuinely upset at that last article but not for the same reason as everyone else. Philip Zimbabwe was a great psychologist, who did ground breaking research that changed our understanding of social roles. So it is really sad to see him turning out this kind of work. He sounds likes an old man protesting that the world has moved on (a genre that has been around as long as writing; certainly Horace’s Roman odes contain some classic “youths of today are no good” moaning). I can’t help thinking that he has projected his feeling of disconnection from society onto the youngest generation of men. Perhaps, the message we should be taking away is how to connect with the older generation so they don’t turn to racism and sexism to find a narrative that makes sense to them!
Rebecca says
And, of course, Zimbabwe should be Zimbardo. Autocorrect – why do you do this to me?!
Stephanie says
Everything I would say about the fathers article has been said, though I understand it was included as a reminder to be intentional about spending one’s time.
To share a trying-for-minimalism success – I need to replace some of my wardrobe due to weight loss. Replacing “all those jeans” is all of 2 pair (and they refused to shrink when I washed them in hot water). Who knows? Maybe one pair will suffice. The work wardrobe is more challenging to minimize, but I’m sure there’s a at to get there.
Great journey.
Maureen@ADebtFreeStressFreeLife says
I was a single mother and it was hard. If it wasn’t for my parents who stepped in and helped me every step of the way, I doubt my daughter who is now 32 wouldn’t have turned out so well.
My daughter will give birth in less than a week and she’s having a son. Her husband is going to be a great father. My daughter works until 7:30pm and he’s so excited he gets to do the night routine on the evenings she’ll be working. I have no doubt about his dedication to my grandson.
A child does need a mother and father of this I can say even because of my own experience. The message got lost because of all the other issues others have already pointed out. It’s too bad, because the point is an important one.
Love says
Thank you for sharing this! This article is so hard for so many to accept because so many of us know that our children are already in front of screens too much, addicted to some/all of the mentioned items, and we don’t want to feel guilty. Instead of getting angry, I hope this inspires change.
Bob Pepe says
I come to this website to reflect, relax and hopefully learn something. This is not a Facebook political site that people are flinging insults at each other, But I have to comment on this article.
It is “Spot-On”…… Children need a mother and a father in the house. That gives the child the best chance to succeed in life. This may be hard to swallow in our liberal society, but a Man and a Women is better than 2 men or 2 women or 1 man or 1 women in the house.
I am not suggesting that gays shouldn’t be able to adopt or can’t raise children, but it is another hurdle for the kids to overcome. A single parent (male or female) is that much worse. It is brutally hard raising children (I am raising 2 teenage girls) with my wife and there are things that I can’t do that she can and vise versa. Men and women are wired differently and we have to use everything we have to raise kids.
Don’t mean to hurt any feelings, but that is a fact, regardless of how the Liberal media spins it
Sibylle says
I enjoy the discourse about this last article. Yes, more father-time with kids, yes, our schools’ principles (create nice folders, sit still) seem to work better with girls than boys (these are supported by various statistics btw), it doesn’t have anything to do with black/white (can’t, since Afro-Germans are scarce and we still face the same problem). The accessibility of porn DOES harm our kids, to say so is not anti-sex but anti-porn-for-12-year-olds.
It is SO important for kids to have male role models, and it’s important to realize (at home and in school) that boys and girls on a wide scale ARE different from each other. It doesn’t matter if the difference is imprinted by pre-kindergarden cultural conditioning, at the time they start school it’s there, and we teachers have to work with that instead of acting as if everyone was the same…
On another note, I really liked the ‘reduce the toys’-article. In case you care to ‘visit’ a Montessori-inspired home beyond the playroom, check this Austrian blog (the pics will mostly speak for themselves, if there’s a language barrier:
http://elternvommars.blogspot.de/?m=1
Sadie says
I, too, found the last article appalling. It reduces fathers to nothing but a gender. Kids who have lost a father aren’t suffering from the lack of a male. They’re suffering from the lack of a second parent who is totally invested in them.
The idea that fathers give conditional love would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic. I know a lot of fathers. The few who withhold affection to try to drive their kids to succeed are the ones with broken kids and, in the end, broken relationships with them.
I won’t go on listing the ways this article demeans women, but it was flat-out insulting. You can champion the importance of fathers perfectly well without painting mothers as ineffectual at discipline, and you can make a case that boys need male teachers without assigning negative characteristics to female teachers! You can promote physical activity in school without trying to pretend girl children don’t need it, too. I’d be on board with any of those things.
Men don’t need to play a role in a child’s life–playing roles is for actors, and there are plenty of those on TV. Men need to be genuine, caring, and thoughtful parents to their children and loving, mindful spouses. That is what their sons need to see.
Jennifer says
I have to agree with the original poster. While fathers do have an important role to play there are a lot of reasons that fathers are not around. It take a village to raise children and putting so much emphasis on fathers playing a specific role puts children without fathers (for a variety of reasons ie death from illness) appears to rule out any chance of the child becoming a fully functioning constructive member of society.
I’m am glad that Joshua took home that he should be active and engaged with his son but I am worried that he seemed to miss the fact that the article seemed to suggest the only reason boys should go to college was for women to find people to marry amongst the other “gender stereotypes and subtle racism”
Cheryl Smith says
Joshua, you are doing a GREAT job. Keep up the wonderful work you do here. I cannot begin to tell you how much you are helping my family and me as we take these one-day-at-a-time steps towards a simpler life. It is amazing how God is leading us, and He is using you to encourage us on our journey. Thank you for encouraging fathers to stay the course and be there for their sons and daughters, maintaining their God-given and God-ordained role in the home. Thank you for your integrity, good intentions, and everything you put into this blog. After all, we pay nothing for the wonderful encouragement and service we find here, yet, you continue to bestow your gifts by pouring into our lives with every post you write. Every time I leave here, I am inspired to let go of excess and move closer to the freedom from entanglements and encumbrances!! God bless you for all you do!