Grocery Bags

Made my first trip by myself to the grocery store yesterday and thankfully it was just Sprouts Farmers Market; I wasn't overwhelmed with Nabisco or General Mills. Everything was fine, bought groceries, came home and put everything away. Then I did what I would have normally done, took the plastic grocery bags, crumbled them up and got ready to put them in the garbage....looked down and I didn't see grocery bags, I saw a soccer ball. Tears filled my eyes and I felt so wasteful; my heart just broke.

In Zambia children use plastic bags for numerous things, some use them as kites, but what I've seen more often is them used as soccer balls. That's right, they take the plastic grocery bags and keep wrapping and tying them around each other to make a soccer ball. I look around my home and see all the different types of balls my girls have: softballs, baseballs, bouncy balls, giant beach balls, etc....need I go on. For what, they only have two hands; half the time they don't even play with them...

Last year I went through this, so my disgust with my personal wastefulness is not new. It is just expanding. We are so inundated by things...we confuse our needs with our wants. Actually, we don't even say "I want" we say "I need"...do you???? I mean really do you need that? At least be honest and say I want.

I know that Zambia has distractions there too; they're just different. God is present as long as I remain in Him; the moment I try to do it myself and become too independent I lose my focus. As much as I complain that He stretches me; it is never too far but just enough to realize that even a plastic grocery bag can bring me to tears. I pray I allow Him to continue to stretch me daily.