Women and Consumerism- Prelude

The following series has been gestating for weeks. Swirling and forming in an embryo of thoughts, conviction, and lessons learned. As they developed and took on form, I knew I had to birth them. For me, more than for anybody. It’s scary though, this birthing process.

What I have learned over the past 10 months  in my steps away from consumerism has been life-altering and hopefully life-changing. I am writing this to chronicle my journey and to bring awareness to a topic that gets too little attention. I’ve had conversations with a number of ladies over the past six months, and realized more strongly than ever, that it strikes a chord in all of us.

The following thoughts are birthed out of these conversations and out of lessons I’ve learned. I will write in sweeping generalizations at times, and what may be true for me, may not be true of your story, and I respect that.

I am nearing the end of a house buying journey, and so I write to keep myself accountable. A new house is a clean slate- a blank canvas, and I know myself and my tendencies toward misplaced loves and priorities.

I used to wonder if Eve was created with a flaw. You know, because she was targeted by the Serpent and sucked into a really dumb dream. I have also wondered if we, her daughters, were born with the same flaw. A flaw that takes us to Target. A flaw that dreams and wishes for things not good for us. A flaw that has us living with second best things when we could be tasting Eden.

But we know that God created her perfectly, and her leaving 101 Perfection Avenue was her choice, not God’s fault. Still, that leaves us with the question: What was it in her (and in us), that gravitates towards half-baked truths and the lust for more and more and more?

I have a theory, but dishing it is a life dream and still in embryo form. It’s scribbled in notebooks and in cobwebby spaces in my head. The following series deals with the problem and with practical solutions for overcoming.

I plan on breaking it up into five posts.

~Women and Shopping

~ Women and Social Media

~Women and Contentment

~ Women and Multilevelmarketing 

~Women and Why it Matters

Is it evident now why this birthing process is scary? These topics are explosive by themselves. Covering them back to back feels like dying a slow death. I’ve struggled with it, wrestled with it and with my insecurities in the parts in which I am still growing. But I have felt the call to share what I’ve learned and I will try to speak responsibly and graciously. Because at the end of the day, we all want the best of the abundant life promised to us by our Redeemer.

~Vicki