Sharing a post that I just read on "Life on a Southern Farm".~stop and think~

This post was on "Life on a Southern Farm" this morning, I wanted to share it because I think we all need to stop and think about "things" and the fact that none of those things make us any richer.. our relationships are much more important. We should all be focusing on more than the shiny things that we all are in love with.

I love to look nice and have nice things just as much as the next person, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, when we think those things make us worth more than someone else..well shame on us all. God frowns on it I'm sure.

Are we Poor

Are we poor? I was in the 3rd grade and it had never crossed my mind that I was poor or even what poor was. But that day a girl in my class said I was poor. She was an only child. She didn't have 6 brothers and sisters like me. She lived in a brick house on a lot near town and both her father and mother worked. Which was unusual back in the 1960's. She didn't live down a red clay dirt road like me. She wore store bought dresses, not homemade ones like me. Her shoes didn't come from the bargain basement, like mine did. She wore Red Goose saddle oxford shoes. She even brought the Red Goose egg bank you got when you bought Red Goose shoes, to school. It was so cool! I wanted to see and touch the big golden egg bank. I asked the girl if I could hold it. She looked at me in that up and down look she was so good at. I was wearing a new yellow calico dress that Mama had just finished sewing. Mama knew how fast kids grow, since she had 7 children, and to make dresses a little too big and a little too long so you could grow into it. Then the girl finished looking me up and down and said "NO! You wear homemade clothes. You are too poor" and turned around and marched off, hugging her golden egg. Poor? Me? When Daddy got home from working at an Atlanta Steel plant, I asked him "Are we poor?" I could see a funny look come on his face and he hesitated a few seconds. Then he replied "No, we are not poor. We are not rich but we surely aren't poor. You have a good clean house to live in, good food to eat right out of the garden, and nice clean clothes to wear. We have everything that we need". That answer was good enough for me and I knew I wasn't poor. That spoiled girl didn't know what she was talking about! I felt sorry for her because she didn't have brothers and sisters to play with. She didn't have woods to explore and a long dirt road to ride her bicycle on. Poor thing! Mama took all the scrap material from the clothes she made me and quilted a quilt. Over forty years later I was cleaning out my linen closet and found my quilt made from my homemade dresses. It brought back memories of that girl and her remark from long ago. I looked at that quilt and remembered each outfit from those scraps of material. Dresses, shorts, and tops that Mama found time, while raising 7 children, to sit at the old Singer sewing machine and sew. Then find time to make quilts to cover us all on those cold winter nights. I wouldn't trade my homemade quilt from my homemade dresses for 20 Red Goose Shoe Banks! That poor girl! Have a great day.