PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD HAVE NO CONCEPT OF WHAT THEY NEED OR DON'T NEED.
We have lived in both Canada and the United States, and we have lived in many different types of living accommodations/situations- big, small, shared, etc...
People in North America always want something bigger, or to have more space, or more things.
I liken it to a woman's purse. A woman will have a small purse and pack that thing to overflowing, then decide that she needs a bigger purse to comfortably fit her stuff into.
The bigger the purse, the more stuff goes in the purse. That purse will always be full!
North America has loads of space....it has nothing but space, at this moment in time.
People in North America want to continually expand to make room for their stuff, and they will be happier once they can get to "X". But happiness will never happen.
It's interesting how a child can have this odd sense of entitlement.
If he has 4 toy cars, but he sees that he could have 5 toy cars-
he will instantly forget about how awesome his 4 toy cars are because this fifth car is really what would make him happy.
It's even more interesting what happens when you tell that child that not only will he not get that 5th toy car, but also you will take away the 4 cars that are currently in his possession...he becomes thankful for those 4 cars real quick.
The United Kingdom is an island, with "X" amount of space. In this case "X" is a very limited amount of space. In order to accommodate having such a limited amount of space with so many people living on it, they need to make everything smaller.
I have yet to see 1 half-ton or 1 full ton truck anywhere. Instead most people drive hatchbacks. The biggest non-commercial vehicle you will see here on average will be a 4-door sedan (or saloon as they call it). Living accommodations are smaller, roads are narrower, etc...
Since space is really limited with living accommodations, a large percentage of the population doesn't have a stand-alone drier. Many don't have a drier at all, and if they do, it's a washer that doubles as a drier. They hang all of their clothes.
You would think that these people would be angry and rioting in the streets...forming picketing lines in front of parliament to show their disdain for their less-than-ideal living situations.
Instead these people love this way of life, and are completely content with it. They don't have the option to have everything bigger, so it forces them to be happy with what they have.
I noticed the very same thing with my children.
They had oodles of toys to play with, but never touched most of them. And if they did, it would be for a matter of minutes before they got bored of it, or started fighting over it. On top of that, they would continually be asking for more toys, because what they had was just not enough.
When we got rid of everything before our move, the kids were living with practically no toys at all for a good while. We told them we weren't going to be buying them any toys, and that they could choose a few toys each to keep that we would bring with us.
That was the best thing we could have done!
From that point on they decided that playing with sticks outside for 45 minutes straight was fun.
They figured out how to be content with little, and they ended up being infinitely better off then how they were before.
Through our whole purging process where we were getting rid of everything that we owned, we found ourselves becoming MORE content, rather than less.
There are so many times in life where I wonder if God is up there biting his lip trying not to say "I told you so".
Every day we need to re-examine what our "needs" are, and put our hearts and attitudes in check.
It's God's will and desire for us to live a life of thankfulness and contentedness...if we can do that with little, then we could do that with much.
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