Satan knows that if he cannot tempt us to do really wicked things then he will at least distract us from doing what the Spirit has told us to do. He wants to stop us from "acting" and place us in a mindset where we wait to be "acted upon."
So here I waited telling God, "this is just the world that I live in and plastic is a part of it, even if it is not ideal." ....................... and there I waited .........and waited.... waiting to be acted upon because I was unwilling to act.
The power of the Spirit had withdrawn from me and I sat distracted in my home clinging to my plastic.
Unfortunately this process has been repeated many times for me and still I am learning how to trust and obey a little quicker each time. In every situation however the real motivator for me to change course is the loss of the Spirit. When I have lost the Spirit I feel so hopeless, so unsure of myself, and I seem to loose the clarity of vision and happiness that I once had when It was my companion. I imagine that is what eternal damnation would be; just being cut-off from that Source of direction, love, happiness, and peace - there would be no need for fireballs and brimstone, it would already be miserable.
So once again I eventually moved forward "acting" in obedience, and once again the Spirit taught me the real reason why I was eliminating plastic after I first acted in faith. It was brought to my attention that by replacing plastic with natural elements of wood, glass, metal, canvas, paper, leather, and fabric we were creating an environment that was self-sustaining. God wanted us to return to the lifestyle that our ancestor's had lived for thousands of years, a lifestyle where everything could be re-used, composted, melted down and reshaped, or burned in a healthy manner.
Consider our ancestors' lifestyle: did they purchase a bunch of things from the store, unwrap and consume all the goods, then fill up large garbage bins with all the wrappers, and set it out once a week for a truck to come pick it up and dump somewhere far away from their home where they would never have to visually see the impact of the lifestyle they were living? No, everything they used was natural and went back into the earth just as it came from the earth with very minimal processing.
Creating this lifestyle for our family has been a major transition from where we were before but slowly we have been leaving behind our wasteful ways and learning to live according to God's ways.
Undoubtedly the tribulations that precede our Savior's second coming are happening throughout the world. If they have not hit your area yet then prayerfully consider some simple ways that you can eliminate some of the packaging that will eventually turn into a sea of garbage in our homes and neighborhoods. If you replace your plastic containers with glass be sure to earthquake proof!
I snapped a few pictures to share some ideas of what it looks like now in our home:
IN THE KITCHEN
We have purchased our dried goods in bulk to minimize packaging. Eventually we hope to refill the jars with our own produce as we increase in our ability to grow our own food, harvest it, and naturally preserve it. Until we reach that point- we will just rotate through our stored foods and sprout the seeds, grains, and legumes we have stored for fresh nutrients and enzymes.
IN THE BATHROOM
We removed all plastic packaging from our year's supply of toilet paper and stored the rolls in large boxes to eliminate garbage later.
We make our own toothpaste out of bentonite clay and brush with wooden toothbrushes - it all took some transitioning but it is nice to actually encourage our children to swallow their toothpaste now because of the health benefits it offers. That was not the case with the toothpaste we had always used before.
We have licorice root sticks as a back-up for teeth cleaning. :)
We switched to wooden combs and hair brushes with natural bristles. I bought a beautiful handmade wooden mirror. We switched our deodorant to a natural salt rock and a crystal. We keep them in a small burlap sack. We replaced our lotion with coconut oil, and we switched to an all metal razor. We still buy our soap from a wholesome company, but I know that I need to learn how to make it myself soon. We also replaced any plastic containers in our bathroom with glass jars (and metal lids or cork stoppers). I did not take a picture but we found a favorite shampoo bar that we buy a dozen at a time. It comes as is with no added packaging- just 12 bars of soap in a cardboard box. These boxes of shampoo bars replaced all the plastic containers of shampoo bottles that we used to have stocked up in our year's supply. Just this change alone eliminated a lot of unnecessary packaging and future garbage.
IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM & CLOSET
Our plastic laundry baskets were replaced with handwoven jute
baskets with cotton liners, they are much more respected and cared for
now that our children know they cannot be used as cars. :)
My husband made me a wooden ironing board with a cotton cover and a wool pad. We switched to wooden hangers, wooden and shell buttons, all-metal scissors and sewing/mending tools, cotton thread with wooden spools, organic cotton yarn and organic wool yarn. It was quite an undertaking to replace all of our plastic buttons with natural ones, we are still not all the way finished with that project but our young daughters have become quite proficient at replacing buttons. :)
Here is an up close shot. We are still using an electric iron, I haven't switched over to that cast iron one..................yet. I am hoping that prompting doesn't come for a little while because my heart is still obviously attached to ease. :)
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