Abundance - Break it Down!!!

Living in abundance requires taking risks.  They don't need to be big risks either.  In fact, starting off small is ideal and whether small or large risks, they require luxurious thinking.  Luxurious thinking includes thoughts like "I am worth it" and "why not me?," and "I know I should do it" and they lead to luxury purchases (small luxury, small risk; bigger luxury, bigger risk),     For me, an example of a small luxury is a spur of the moment purchase at a chocalatier shop.  Why?  Because I am worth it!

What makes it a luxury you might ask?  It's a luxury if it's better than the every day item and it makes you feel exhilerated.  For example, I feel intoxicated when I taste something dipped in high quality dark chocolate sprinkled with sea salt, like pretzles topped with caramel.  I bought 14 ounces on Sunday for less than $10.00, shared them on the way home, and had even more to eat and share when I got home.  Side note:  sharing the luxury can make the experience even better.

But sometimes it is harder for me to pull the trigger when the expense is a little higher and I have already made other purchases.  Being on vacation and already spending on airfare or accomodations is one example; an emergency car repair is another example.  When this happens, often we have already invested significant disposable income or maybe we didn't budget enough.  How do we think luxuriously then?  In this case luxurious thinking requires me to trick Nagging Nelly who lives in a corner of my brain.  Nagging Nelly is the one that tells me, "there's always next time," "what makes you special," "there might be a catastrophe and then where will you be?"  Trust me, the list goes on and on.  It is at these times that I have to break the abundance down, turning it into a smaller increment, so that I can trick Nagging Nelly into believing that it's not an unreasonable amount because God* is teaching me to live abundantly, to enjoy His creations, to experience everything that is in my line of sight while I am on this tremendous earth!

For example, if paddle boarding is a luxury that says to me, "do it, think abundantly, you are worth it," but Nagging Nelly says "it seems extravagant", then I may need to break the expenses down.  If there are 4 people interested in participating, even if I must treat the group or go without, then 4 is the dividing number. So if 4 people paddle boarded for 4 hours then I don't need to think of it as spending $100 but I can think of it in a smaller increment:  $25 per person for the activity, or if that seems to be too much, then 16 hours of fun for $6.25 per hour per person.  That seems totally worth it AND it is because it doesn't even factor the amount of time that feeling of exhileration stayed with me and the others.

At the end of the day, I do need to have the money.  This is not about throwing caution to the wind if there is a serious debt problem.  There I would recommend hunkering down, getting expert advice, and celebrating milestones with a mini luxury such as a decadent treat like one chocoalate covered strawberry.

Reflective questions:

1.  Think about some small luxuries which seem extravagant, but when you pulled the trigger, created euphoria for you and maybe even others.  How does it feel thinking about them now?

2.  How do you know when luxurious spending is God-directed and when it isn't? 

3.  What does God* want you to know about this (ask directly, God what do you want me to know?)

* I use the term God as a universal term.  You may decide that Great Spirit, Allah, Higher Power, etc. better suits you for today.  It is not for me to decide.