Consumption vs Production

We have become a society of consumers rather than producers. Our spiritual and physical growth requires that we actually produce more than we consume. If your body consumes more food than it expends in work you get fat, likewise the more we become consumers of the things the world has to sell us the less spiritually fit we become.

As consumers it is important to keep account of where we are spending our money. In our household we call them buckets. We have buckets that can't be changed like the mortgage bucket, or the groceries bucket, but then we have buckets on things like the vacation bucket or the going out for dinner bucket. At the end of the month we can look at our buckets and see where our money has gone. Where your money goes is where your priorities in life are.

My wife and I made a promise to ourselves that with the exception of our mortgage none of our buckets would be bigger than our tithing bucket. What you consume determines where your heart is.