Guest post by Denise:
In Honor of R.C. This article today is in honor of my very dear friend, R.C. She is the coupon clipper of all coupon clippers. She finds deals I didn’t know were findable. Do you have a friend like this? R.C. could outdo them! She is quiet and sane and has a lovely personality but don’t mess with her coupons. Recently, she went shopping for her super great deals of the week and in the process of getting her goodies, her son, her purse (girls, you know how it goes when we go out) she left her coupon book behind.
She was lost and devastated.
She had spent hours clipping and sorting and finding the best deals and had just forgotten the whole manifest behind in a small, squeaky cart. She called the store repeatedly but no one ever turned them in.
I felt so bad for her. I am always amazed at her grocery shopping victories. I go to the store when I must, for the shortest time possible and load up on anything I may need for the next month so I don’t have to go again. She ENJOYS shopping. She gets way more out of it and her family eats good fresh fruit out of season and mine eats whatever is quickly worth cooking from the deep freezer – or cookies. We eat a lot of home made cookies here. But when asparagus season starts, we eat asparagus every single day – no exaggeration – from our field. I think that makes up for home made cookies every day! J
So, I was thinking of her today and her lost coupons and how I had to go to the store and thought, maybe, I should actually look at the flyer she told me to this week because of the great deals. I looked, I clipped a few coupons – just a few – went to the store and I had to admit, it was a lot more fun. We ate fresh fruit for dinner, fruit on sale, no less. It’s amazing what a little planning can do.
Like, when I am getting ready to go to Bible study. Some girls at church started a new Bible study I am now attending. If I sit down, actually do my study, read the scripture, answer the questions, and think on the questions a few days BEFORE I go I get so much more out of the study. However, I usually read it hurriedly as I am getting dinner on the table so I can clear the dinner, make it to the study, get a little out of it and repeat for next week…not a lot unlike my grocery shopping. I get what I need to get by, but not anything to savor and enjoy.
I always say that I would be all about making out a list of groceries someone would deliver to my door. Easy, simple, no travel or long lines. But R.C. encourages me to go for the gusto, the satisfaction is more. Like the difference of checking Bible study off the list rather than actually studying and growing in Bible study.
I imagine that the more I put to practice these skills the more likely I would be to miss them if I lost them, if I shoved them to the side. I imagine I would feel lost and devastated, like R.C. when she lost her coupon manifesto.
And just like life is so much better around our home if the food is ready on the table when my husband gets home, the boys lunches are packed and ready to go with fun treats and good nutrition it makes our family life so much smoother and happier. Wouldn’t it be the same with Bible study? Wouldn’t it be the more time I spent with my Heavenly Father, savoring the moment, I would learn more and appreciate him more? Yah, I think so to.
