Friday, January 23, 2015

Of Temptations to Scream ...

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]"   ...  Matthew 11:28


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So. My favorite local coupon lady at Facebook alerted us that, at WalMart.com, they were practically tossing clothes out the door for free.

She'd bought this jacket for only $6 (regularly $40):



And these jeans for only $2 (regularly $15):


Well. I could have zipped over there in the wee hours of morning, but noooo ... I waited ages (not being a WalMart shopper for clothes, mostly), and when I did take a peek, wow! Much was already sold out, but still, enough nice things were left in my size. After an hour, my cart had lots of items at only $3 or $4 or $5 dollars each, reached around $53, then, ten minutes later, wham! Suddenly it said $107. 

The clearance sale had ended.

Oh. My. Goodness. I wanted to scream, especially since my head ached from all that concentration and clothes/weight angst and squinting through these cheapo reading glasses and being awake since 4:00 a.m.. Ack! All those good deals gone forever (and no way was I gonna pay the double price).

But then it came to me: nothing is worth throwing a fit over, especially not losing ones great deals at WalMart.com. So I repeated a few times, "I will not get mad. I will not get mad...", then went to the kitchen for some magnesium calm-down powder from Naomi (which I take before bed and, truth be told, occasionally before Tom comes home from work. heh). I even returned to Facebook to see if others had experienced the same tragedy--and they had, one woman having had 100 things in her cart(!) Oh dear. So I commented about my experience, adding a bit of humor.

You know why these tests happen, don't you? So that when we're s-q-u-e-e-z-e-d, we'll behold what comes out: sweet or sour, fragrance or stench, grown-up-ness or baby-ness. So we can then ask God, "Please show me what's rotten within and how to empty it, so I can behave more like You next time."

God doesn't want us to spend our years in disappointment misery, but rather, in a calmness, a contentment which comes from trusting Him more than any person (politicians included) or job or friend or relative or bank account. 

He wants to mean more to us than anything, to be our go to encourager, the lifter of our heads, especially when we're tempted to bang those heads upon our computer's keyboard.  :)



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"I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it[a]overflows). ...   John 10:10

"...For it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."   ... 1 Peter 1:16


"The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her."  ~Marcelene Cox



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Another of those great deals was this zip-up sweater for $3 rather than $20:




Oh well! Tom leaves for S. Africa in a couple weeks so I'll have the car on weekdays and can shop at my good ol' faithful Salvation Army on Half-Off Wednesdays where I always find quality clothes which last for years (no, really!).


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Free Kindle books:





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Check out the weekend freebie at Savingstar.com here.

5 comments:

Terra said...

That zip up sweater is a great deal. So, did you buy the cart full of things, or just walk away, after the prices went up?

Debra said...

Oh Terra! Being a big time penny pincher, I just walked away. :) I think I'll go back and make that clearerin my post--thanks!

Oh, the tons and tons of remarkable deals earlier today--oh my! :)

Blessings, Debra

terricheney said...

I got a great deal on a nice brand of moccasins yesterday at the thrift store. I haven't seen great deals on clearance anywhere much in years, except online, but I always want to stop and think about it and forget it in the meantime...Forgetting is a great way to save money, lol.

Pam said...

Good sales are really hard to resist. I ordered some things from Land's End for Christmas gifts, and ever since, they've been sending e-mails offering 50-60% off. It's so doggone tempting to order more stuff, but I haven't, yet. I actually want to buy some flannel sheets, but the size I need is out of stock. Maybe that's a blessing in disguise.

Deborah Raney said...

We've been Goodwill shoppers since my husband was laid off from his job six years ago. No matter how well we do financially, I will never go back to paying $30-40 for one item of clothing! (Unless it's shoes maybe.) Yes, you have to spend some time going through a lot of things that don't work, but last trip to Goodwill, I walked out of there with 17 items and spent under $50. That leaves a lot more money for other things!