Today I'd like to welcome Jill and Mark Savage. Jill and Mark's newest book Living with Less so your Family has More just released and I've invited them to share a little bit about this great resource!


Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

We have been married for 27 years…17 of them happily. After finding ourselves in a marriage counselor’s office around year 8 or so, we realized that we really didn’t know how to be married. We worked hard to turn things around and now we like to share that hope with other couples.

We have five children ranging from 13 to 25. Our oldest three are married. Anne (25) and her husband, Matt, live in Zion, IL, and are expecting our first grandchild in April. (We are very excited!) Evan (22) and his wife, Julie, have been married a year and a half and they live just a few miles from us. Erica (19) married her husband Kendall last September. They live in Augusta, GA, and wherever else the Army takes them.

We have two teenagers still at home. Kolya just turned 16. He’s learning to drive and we’ve nearly worn a hole in the carpet on the floor in the passenger seat trying to find that non-existent brake pedal. Kolya is the newest member of the Savage family. We adopted him at the age of nine from Russia.

Austin is 13 and in the 8th grade. He wants us to make sure and tell the world that this “living with less” life is a real bummer because he’s the ONLY kid in 8th grade who doesn’t have a cell phone.

Tell us about your newest book Living With Less So Your Family Has More?

The world screams the message that bigger is always better, but we have found that is not often true. When it comes to raising a family, less materially can actually result in more relationally. Children don’t need the best houses, the best lessons, the best cars, or the best clothes. What they really need is the best home life and the best family relationships we can give them.

Why did you want to write this book?

We didn’t start out with the “less is more” mindset. We started as a double income family wanting to have the “best” of everything. Then Mark decided to pursue ministry. We went from the “high life” to the “frugal life” very quickly as we moved to another state for him to go to Bible College full-time.

That experience introduced us to the concept that less is more. We definitely had less money, but we had more time. We had less stress and more peace. We had less activities and more fun.

Since that experience, we’ve continued to live primarily on one income for the past twenty years. We’ve had to battle cultural peer pressure and make different decisions for our family than many other families in our neighborhood have made. But we’ve never felt that we were materially depriving ourselves or our kids…instead we’ve focused on what we’ve actually been able to provide for them emotionally and relationally.

What do you hope your readers will gain from this book?

We hope the reader is encouraged to evaluate how they are living their life, spending their money, and thinking about family matters. Our goal is to introduce families to the “less is more” concept and then equip them with the attitudes and actions to actually make that happen.

For families that are already committed to less is more, we hope to bolster their resolve and help them stay focused on the long-term goal of providing relationally for their kids.

In today’s economy, there are many families being forced to live with less. We want to help them see the opportunity they have with this unexpected downsizing they’ve been forced to do.

And for those who have just been a little discontent with their life and saying things like, “I’m tired of the rat race of life,” or “Is there more to life than drive-thru meals for dinner?” we hope to help them see other choices they have and how they can lead their family in a different direction.

What unique elements will the reader find in Living With Less So Your Family Has More?

For couples who want to read the book together, we’ve included discussion questions at the end of every chapter. This helps move the readers to discussion and eventually actions. Even a single parent can use the discussion questions for personal evaluation.

Readers will find this book a practical guide to changing your attitude and your actions to live a successful “less is more” life. They’ll find our writing style to be a warm, casual, honest discussion where we not only share our victories but our mistakes along the way. We are an average couple living successfully on an average income who want to help others to see the possibilities before them.

This is a Hearts at Home book. What is Hearts at Home?

Hearts at Home is an organization that encourages, educates, and equips women in the profession of motherhood. Hearts at Home encourages moms through annual conferences, our extensive website (www.hearts-at-home.org), a free electronic newsletter, a radio program, and an entire line of books designed to meet the needs of moms all over the world!

Any closing thoughts?

It’s healthy for parents to occasionally pause and evaluate their vision for their family and the choices they are making. We hope this resource will help them do that together and that it will lead them to live a life of little regret.

I'm baaaaacccckkkk! Well, kinda - here's a post from my friend Suz, enjoy!

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust the Lord in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.

This verse seems so simple. Trust the Lord with EVERYTHING, in all things acknowledge and him and give him credit and life will be easy, right? Not so much….The verse says He will make your path straight, not easy. The Lord’s idea of straight, as my simple mind can imagine, is according to His plan, not our own. So, yes, if we trust him with everything, lean on His infinite wisdom and acknowledge Him in all we do, we will see the blessings He is ready to pour out on us that will surely far surpass the limited scope of what we can imagine for ourselves.

Where are you today? Tired of caring the load? Tired of feeling like everything you can give is just not enough? Well, you are probably right. You cannot do enough right stuff for God to love you anymore than he already does. So be real with who you are and thank God today for the way he has molded and made you to be for you are His.

Have a blessed day!
Christie

I am excited to share a fun opportunity with you!

To celebrate the release of Hearts at Home’s newest book: Living With Less So Your Family Has More, by Jill and Mark Savage, the Hearts at Home blog is launching the Living with Less Contest.

Email Hearts at Home a story or money-saving tip that gives a peek into your daily experiences representing the humor, richness, or spiritual aspects of what it’s like to live with less.

Better yet, blog readers will benefit as many of the money-saving entries will be posted on the Heart’s blog throughout the month of February!

For contest details go here!

Have a great day!

Living fearlessly in Christ

Christie

Good morning my bloggy friends! I've missed you! This working full-time has really but a damper on my blogging! Yep, I said it, I'm finally working full-time after 5 months of not having a job and to boot, I love my job!! :) I'm here blogging today because the preschool that I'm working at is closed today. The other teachers and I spent most of our day yesterday cleaning up vomit and diarrhea as we sent many children home with the stomach flu. I got the call this morning that the owner and 1/2 of the teachers have it now. I'm praying that I don't get included!!

I've begun a new class at school called "Dynamics of self-leadership" and I'm learning alot about how to choose important things over urgent things and how to make more time for spiritual disciplines like study, submission, service, prayer, fasting, simplicity and solitude. I'm beginning to realize that I need to keep myself in strong connection with God if I want to help others connect with Him. I tend to give so much of myself to others that I become spent and burnt out because I don't take any refueling time for myself.

We also have been learning about how to keep an eternal perspective on the choices that we make. There are so many things that I get worked up over that have no eternal impact - they just really don't matter in the long term. I want to live a life that truly focuses on the eternal since I am currently living my eternal life and so are you if you are a Christian.

One last note, cause this is a biggie - Gossip is a symptom of not feeling full in Christ. We gossip about others because it makes us feel better. We want worth and when we don't feel worthy, we focus on the faults of others so that we feel better about ourselves.

Our worth doesn't come from how we feel or from what others do, our worth comes from the fact that we are created by God in unique and magnificent ways. Our worth comes from knowing that, as Christians, we are children of God - princes and princesses of the King.

Are you willing to make the commitment not to gossip? Are you willing to find your worth in God and not go searching for it elsewhere?

I've loved having the time to catch back up with you! I hope that your day is wonderful and that we can talk again soon!

Keep your faith - we win in the end!

Living fearlessly in Christ
Christie

Check out this song by Sanctus Real -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06AgY5Xoavw

This song explains how I feel many times when I feel overwhelmed, afraid and desiring answers for my questions. I've learned that its during these times that God is working on my heart and preparing me for the changes He wants to make in my life and in myself.

Times of change are not fun and can spin me quickly into my own little pity party but its keeping my eyes focused on God and not myself that brings me through.

I'm reading a book for my current class on spiritual disciplines. One discipline that we are studying is the discipline of solitude, or taking time to just be still and be quiet. Those times come few and far between in our busyness crazed world but I think its time for just that - some quiet time with my God.

Have a great day and a great weekend.

Living fearlessly in Christ
Christie

Our God is an awesome God! I continue to rejoice over our son giving his life to Christ and then being baptized on Sunday. I can't use words to explain the joy that I felt when both of our children accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior - it is just unexplainable.

Accepting Christ as your Lord means that you want Him to be the center of your life - your focus.

As I read in Exodus 34 today, I thought about something - God told Moses to come up on Mt. Sinai so He could give him a new set of tablets with the Ten Commandments inscribed on them since Moses had broke his other set in anger. Moses had went up on Mt Sinai the first time for 40 days and 40 nights, when he returned he stayed 40 days and 40 nights. Verse 28 says "Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water."

Now, that is some major focus!

I have a hard-enough time taking a few minutes out of my day to read the Bible and pray but to spend 40 days and 40 nights in the presence of God would be an amazing experience!

What is taking your focus from God?

Has busyness consumed your life and kept your focus somewhere else than where it should be?

Make the choice to take time to readjust your focus today

Living fearlessly in Christ

Christie

Good morning and happy Friday my bloggy friends! :) Looks like the night added a couple more inches of snow to our count of 6 from the day before. Although the snow causes inconveniences, there is nothing more beautiful than watching it fall and covering everything with a blanket of sparkling white. It reminds me of God's grace and how His sweet forgiveness covers all my sin. I was writing about how even though we sin so many times, God still loves us for an upcoming speaking engagement and came up with:

We make mistakes, big and small, but the grace of God covers them all.

I guess I'm a poet and didn't even know it!! :)

I start a new class on Tuesday and as I was working on homework yesterday, I read some very thought-provoking things. I was reading about different spiritual disciplines that need to be a part of all our lives.

Here's a section on study:
"Many Christians remain in bondage to fears and anxieties simply because they do not avail themselves of the Discipline of study. They may be faithful in church attendance and earnest in fulfilling their religious duties, and still they are not changed. I am not here speaking only of those who are going through mere religious forms, but of those who are genuinely seeking to worship and obey Jesus Christ as Lord and Master. They may sing with gusto, pray in the Spirit, live as obediently as they know, even receive divine visions and revelations, and yet the tenor of their lives remains unchanged. Why? Because they have never taken up one of the central ways God uses to change us: study. Jesus made it unmistakably clear that the knowledge of the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)" Celebration of Discipline by Richard J Foster

Hope that gives you something to chew on til we meet again.

Have a great day and a great weekend!

Living fearlessly in Christ
Christie