So I have decided to set up a blog for a year about not shopping. Not only do I feel pressures from television, movies and advertising that I need to buy constantly, I feel it in my heart. I have had a shopping "problem" for as long as I can remember. Not particularly the act of shopping, but the desire to. I will spend a long time looking for deals online, comparing prices, and just lusting after things I don't need. I never considered this a problem (besides the lack of $$ in my bank account) until I started walking with God. Even still, I denied it for about the first year. Since then, I have been asking God and myself why I shop. Here's what I came up with:
1. I do it to fit into my subculture (and be an American..)
2. I do it to have something to do
3. I do it because it makes me feel good (this was brought to light by many sources, but lately Don Miller's Blue Like Jazz)
4. I shop because it makes me feel cool and important (I get to tell people about what I bought..)

This past summer I tried to change my buying habits to giving habits. However, I am not fully committed to a church where I can tithe and give regularly so that fell through fairly quickly. I do give each month to an organization called Compassion, but mainly it hasn't helped the problem. Dc Talk's lyric from In the Light state, "Every attempt on my behalf has failed to bring this sickness under control" and that is precisely what I have been doing. I have been trying to set my own limits to this problem rather than looking at it as a heart-problem (sin). I give only to stop shopping, not because my heart is screaming out for the poor. I need God's help rather than trying to help myself. I have a hard time understanding that the money I earn isn't mine, that it belongs to God, and therefore I use it frivolously.

After praying about it and thinking about it I have decided to give up shopping for a year. This includes not only clothes, but things like candles and other crap I don't need. Not only will this be extremely difficult for me to do, it will be hard for me to decipher between want and need. That is why I have eliminated that option by not buying anything. I can by food and that will be it. My only buying will be gifts, and I will probably continue with making gifts (as I usually do).


What I plan to do:
1. Pray.
2. I am setting up a blog to write about this, not just my life (and because hey, I've never had a blog).
3. Write down every time I either say I want something or think I want something (this will be interesting).

I will be writing about what I am learning throughout this process and January 7, 2010 is my very first day. Mainly because I like the number 7, and the 23rd is too far away.
Melissa