136 - The Contentment Challenge (Ep. 3 Replay)

  What is the Contentment Challenge? In a nutshell, it is a commitment to giving up shopping for clothes, accessories, household decor, stuff, really anything excessive, for 3 months straight in order to focus your heart and your mind on the root of true contentment. It's also a commitment to replace shopping with activities experiences and relationships— the things that really matter in your life. We live in a world where money seems to kind of fly out of our bank accounts with the simple push of an Amazon button on your phone or the irresistible one spot at Target. We keep buying more and more to make us happy, but does it really? Does it really foster a deep, centered posture of joy and contentment? A few years ago, God asked me to give up shopping for 3 months straight and at first I was not happy about that. This episode is all about that journey and the profound difference that it's made in my heart and in my life. The simple act of abstaining from shopping for extra things for a short amount of time opened my eyes wide to the weird way that I was living life is a consumer and it revealed the actual way that I want to live—full of gratitude and Grace. I have actually taken the Contentment Challenge many times over the years, and in this episode I share the three things I learned during my most recent time through (Jan-March 2019). This also includes a lot of our financial story. Some of which, quite honestly, hurts my pride a little to share, but I pray that God can use it to benefit you! I hope this episode causes you to pause and think about your own life and how content you are today. Who knows? Maybe you need to take the challenge, too. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/136.   Resources from this episode: Take the Contentment Challenge (begins Jan. 10, 2022!) Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps Making Things Happen Conference Philippians 4:12