The concept of lack, the empty nest

In anticipation of taking a huge reduction in pay we, me and Mama, are trying to reconfigure our view of money. In the past year we went to a cash only life and it quickly revealed some major problems in how were handling our finances. In light of that revelation we are now trying to condition ourselves to the idea of real lack of money. Not the inability to provide for our necessities, but rather the inability to help meet the needs of others as we have in the past.
That is true lack for us. I am also concerned that my giving will be seriously hampered, but I am not held responsible for r what I do not have. There is some consolation in the fact that my life will be given more to the causes that I have been involved in from the sidelines on a permanent and fulltime basis. I am not sure I am ready. I am also not sure if there is any way to prepare other than to go and trust that all the preparations are made already.
We took my nephew Seth t o a burger place called, 25 Burgers. The check came to almost forty dollars for the four of us. Chase looked at Mama and said; “We just used up two hundred dollars worth of spending power in one meal.” Mama almost couldn’t eat her half of our burger. He gets it, but he is used to having very little spending power. Maybe he can teach us how this is done.
I have always understood that God is the provider in our lives but the focus has always been on me when it came to meeting the family and church financial needs. That will no longer be the case and in ways that in and of itself is a humbling change for me and our family. I am anxious to see what God is willing to do when the focus is no longer on the paycheck I receive, but on the needs we have in our lack.
On the brighter side, we will delay having an empty nest by several years. I did not realize how much we missed having our children around until this month when two of our daughters were here for a visit. Mama really expressed how excited she was to have them home for a time. Her interactions with me and a sixteen-year-old son leave her short changed in female camaraderie. There is little I can do to help that.
I often tell people that when I want to get in touch with my feminine side, I hug my wife.