In I Like Me, Anyway Brooke Romney shares that her husband was doing well in real estate and so they purchased their dream home in Arizona. Things were going really well. And then...the market crashed in 2008 and things weren't good. Arizona was hit hard. And her husband's job was 100% commission and they had just spent much of their savings on a down payment. They were living on their food storage and pinching pennies. They prayed and plead but had to back out of their dream home. They sold the house they were living in and moved to Michigan so her husband could attend graduate school. The winters were long, their student housing was drab and they had little money.
AND YET...she writes:
"Our community quickly embraced us and taught us more about openness, generosity and true charity than we had ever known before. They accepted us immediately, 20 of them waiting on the curb in the rain for us to arrive. They took our kids to play and unloaded our moving van with warm smiles. They delivered a basked of essentials on our first night and had us over for breakfast the next morning, though none of them truly had extra to spare. Never had I seen such genuine selflessness and acceptance. It felt like Zion.
As we lived together for the next two years, our Michigan friends taught me that you don't need a certain amount of square footage to invite someone into your life and that goodness has nothing to do with the size of your house or the balance of your bank account and everything to do with your heart." (page 51)
She says there is nothing inherently good or bad in money but our attitude toward it matters. And "the way it dictates how we feel about ourselves and others can distort our vision if we aren't careful."
LESSONS LEARNED:
Character and love--that's what matters.
I can gather others in my home even if it is smaller.
How can I better welcome people into my life and into my heart? How can I welcome others with open arms?
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