How Much is Enough?

Watching commercials, browsing catalogues, visiting on line shopping sites, watching shopping networks on TV, reading advertisements and interacting with social media about different products makes you want it all now! We’re living in a society where folks feel they need that instantaneous fulfillment and everything in our culture encourages us to buy, buy, buy.

The constant quest for material goods is like being on a sugar rush that you can’t escape. A perfect example is craving the newest technology toy. What do you with the old technology after you have the newest version? Is it an investment you’re still going to use or is it sitting in your home collecting dust? Is the new thing the best thing only until the next new thing comes along?

So many times our accumulation of stuff is wrapped up in our quest for happiness and security—what the world tells us is important. Finding happiness and security will never come from buying or accumulating “things,” no matter what the world tells us.

If your closets are overflowing with clothes you don’t wear, and if the garage is so full there is no room for the car, and if the attic has no empty space, then it’s time to sit back and think. Pope Francis tells us “There is a danger that threatens everyone in the church, all of us. The danger of worldliness. It leads us to vanity, arrogance and pride.”

Get away from the danger of worldliness. Clean out those garages and closets and donate the items to a consignment shop, St. Vincent de Paul Society thrift store or Catholic Charities. And once the clutter is gone, find some positive ways to remain grateful for what you have without the constant quest for more. Here are some ideas to help you be more grateful:

• Start a gratitude journal and write what you’re most thankful for daily or weekly.
• In your evening prayers, meditate about the good things in your life that day.
• Stop using the words “my” and “mine” and instead use “the” to put distance between yourself and your possessions.
• Each evening at the dinner table have each family member share three things for which they are grateful.

These suggestions will help you become more aware of what you do have instead of being so wrapped up in what you want. What if every day God only gave you those things for which you thanked him yesterday? How much of your stuff would remain if that were the situation? There is no such thing as being too grateful for all the blessings God has given to us.

“Command those who are rich in the things of this life not to be proud, but to place their hope, not in such an uncertain thing as riches, but in God, who generously gives us everything for our enjoyment.” (1 Timothy 6:17)

Listen to our Compass Catholic’s radio show to learn more money-saving tips: https://compasscatholic.org/archived-radio-shows/