Needs Or Wants


Cover of "Kindle Wireless Reading Device,...

Cover via Amazon

I am doing laundry and considering washing a couple of windows, inside and out. While I am debating on what to do next, I have been watching the commercials on the television. I realize that you can buy anything your heart desires for the right price. Do you need a new figure? You can buy a Weight Watchers diet plan. You can buy the special foods with the points numbered on them, and you can even pay to go weigh in public with others. Do you not like your face, your eyes, nose or chin? You can pay for an alteration, even splurging for a look where people would not recognize you immediately. Do you have those ugly spider veins? You can pay someone to take the streaks away, leaving you with beautiful legs. Are you and your partner not compatible in the bedroom? You can buy another human body for an hour to give you what you think you lack at home. Do the shoe commercials tell you that your feet would look more beautiful if you wore their brand of shoes? How many pairs of shoes are already in your closet, also guaranteed to make you more beautiful than you already are in God’s eyes. Did God not give you the perfect breast size? You can purchase new ones if you want. How about the body that God hath made? It is remarkable that you can now pay top dollars and have your gender changed. Can a commercial convince you that your car that is running fine, and only five years old, that you must have a faster, safer, more exotic car  to be able to fit in to this world? That you will get more dates, more looks, and more envious eyes turning your way? Don’t like carrying around your favorite paper back book? You can buy a Kindle and take this with you everywhere. You can purchase a certificate for anything you want to be today. I can remember when training was offered for free at a job, along with a weekly pay check. Remember, going into your grandma’s garden and picking that warm, plump  tomato off of the vine? Enjoying the flavor of it as you bite into it and the juices run down your arm? The watermelon? Dad would go to the garden patch and pick out one of many, cut if from the vine, and you had it for supper that night? Now you can pay a high price for organic, the same food you ate from the garden in earlier days. Now you can pay high prices, thanking the production companies, by filling their pockets, for not putting that cancer chemical in your foods. My father mowed our yard with a hand push mower, that had blades and a frame and handle. Now you can purchase gas, electric, self-propelled mowers, that almost do the guiding and work for you. Just know your budget and they can fulfill your dream. You can pay money to go to a club and walk an indoor track, or use an indoor, heated pool. When I was young, I walked as a way to get from point A to point B. I swam in the lakes, in the summer, where the natural sun heated the water, and I could go as many times as I wished all summer long for free. You can now purchase under garments that add lift to your bottom, or extra lift to your breast. Have a tummy that pokes out? You can buy an all in one, to keep it all hidden and under control. I could always listen to the radio at home on my very own portable radio, or I could choose to go out into the living room and watch the family television, all three channels. Now you can purchase many stations, premiums for kids, teens, and adults, any sports channel you can imagine, and you can watch these on any numerous televisions through out your house. You can purchase tiny electronics, that you can place ear buds in your ears, purchase and download the music, and have your very own juke box with you at all times. Need to take your computer with you? You can buy a laptop, and all the accessories, now making the internet available to you 24 hours a day.  When mom or dad called your name and you were so excited because someone was calling for you, now you can carry a cell phone, and pay top dollar in order to never miss a call. You can even purchase electronics that allow you to see the other person you are talking to. My parents each had two jobs in their lives. The one they started in their teen years, and the one they ended up retiring from. Now you can choose any job, switch at any time because there are no longer the securities built-in to the paycheck that give you the incentive to remain with one company. You can even buy your own retirement, and this is probably a good purchase, because if you don’t, you may retire in the poor house. Remember the wonderful health insurance you had when you worked full-time? Now you can purchase your own coverage, picking and choosing what you think you may need. This used to be  free, remember? Our world is in debt to a dollar amount that we can barely speak. Jobs are hard to find, if you are looking for security. God has promised to  give us all that we need in our lives, if we promise to love and follow him. How much do we pay yearly, to hear that we need more to be more. Is there a difference between wants and needs? Should we pay a higher price to keep the cancer chemicals out of our bodies, because the supply and demand is so huge with the fact that we want it all now? I am not saying that advancements in life are bad. We do need some in order to keep up with the future, but do you think the media, the television, magazine ads, books are promoting our minds to spend more on wants than needs. The clever pictures, words, and sexual innuendos that are used to sell us, are done so craftily, that we do not even realize what is happening. I find myself in these positions at times also. I am guilty for sure. When I see this happening, when I hear I want, I want, coming out of my mouth, I have to stop, and take a breath, and think, do I need this or do I want this. Just my opinions friends. No pointing  any fingers from me. We each live our own lives the way we see fit. Remember the phrase, stop and smell the roses? This is what I need to work on daily, because I can find my mind swirling and making me dizzy.

16 thoughts on “Needs Or Wants

  1. Ah, well written Terry! Enjoyed this post. I think it’s so important to take time and remember that God made us the way we did for a reason. I am guilty of wishing I was a little more this or that at times. Thanks for this post.

    Like

  2. So true. It feels like we are sometimes almost brainwashed or hypnotized with what we are told we need. We do need to remember where our focus should be. 🙂

    Like

  3. Very thought provoking, Terry! I being a simple person, usually have 4 pair of shoes that I use depending on the weather. All of them are black except my tennis shoes which are white. I think God gave us wrinkles as a sign of aged wisdom, so I’ll keep mine. As for losing weight, all those fad diet plans don’t tell you that you can lose weight naturally by drinking more water and walking more. I lost 90 pounds just doing those things with I was 38. But all these diet plans tell you if you eat their meals you will lose weight, and when you get them they still say in their plans to walk and drink more water…but eat their food. I see them as money scams. Instead of doing all these things that soceity suggest, I think we need to be happy with the uniqueness that God created called you.

    Like

  4. If wishes were brains, we would all be geniuses!

    But as you see, most ad’s are addressed towards the female. I wonder if they are telling us something! I am not saying one sex is smarter than the other, for the record.

    Ed

    Like

    • wow Ed, you are on a roll with me today. i am not going to say anything about this remark, as i know without even thinking there is no picking on either sex, and i can think of many commercials geared to the male as well as the females. hope the rest of your day is going to be a great one! hugs. 🙂 and it is too late, you already made your point about women and brains..

      Like

      • actually, i am wondering if this may be some sort of spam that others are receiving. the Ed that i have come to know and the Ed that has text me and offered to call and offered to watch Al if you were closer in miles, has never talked this way. i am pretty sure this is a spam bot using your name Ed, because you would not do this

        Like

  5. Awesome post and it’s true. My social cultural anthropology professor at U of T said that the idea of progress, aka civilization as being ‘modern’ and the way to be is interesting since we work say 40-60 hours a week, and still need to cook, clean, wash, and shop versus tribes say in Africa that spend 20 hours a week soley on foraging. That’s it. Who is the more civilized? HAHA…

    Plus, she noted that healthcare in the most ‘modern’ countries aren’t necessarily living longer. In fact, the gap between the rich and the poor, leads to despair for those who wish they had more as well as to those who are busy protecting their stuff from those who have not. She talked about Kerala, and how fairly distributed resources were. In fact, at one point in time, we did believe in that.

    Great post!

    Pink.

    Like

  6. Excellent post, Terry. I agree that people today want so much that they don’t need. The “keeping up with the Joneses” goal of the pat has developed more into “surpassing the Joneses” by as large a margin as possible in the present day. God did not promise to meet our every want, only our every need. We need air, water, food, shelter, clothing, relationships, income. We don’t need 52″ flat screen TVs or $500,000 homes or $50,000 cars. And none of those things, in the end, will make us truly happy. The only thing that can really satisfy us in life is to know Jesus and to walk with Him. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with people having expensive things – if they can honestly afford them and if they don’t become idols in their lives. The trouble with people today is that they want so much they cannot afford and go into deep debt in order to fill their lives with things that come with huge bills attached to them – and a great deal of stress. It’s time we all got back to the simpler way of life. I think we would be much happier that way.

    Like

    • i have to agree with what you said. we need to go back to a simpler time in life. as i said before, we can’t take it with us, and if you are obtaining to keep up or get ahead of the neighbors, u r insecure somewhere in your own life

      Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.