This past week I got quick reminder about what my material weaknesses are. Whether we know it or not, we are all materialistic to an extent. It’s good to know where your weaknesses are thought so that you’ll be ready when you’re tempted.

This past week, my home computer monitor gave out. Well, it didn’t really “give out” as much as start popping, and hissing and smelling like burning plastic and then shut down. I’ve had it for just over two years which means there was no warranty and an equivalent monitor would run me around $350. Seeing that I run a website for a living and spend a good majority of my day staring at a screen, my first instinct was to go shopping for another monitor. But there was a problem. This past month my wife and I ran into some unexpected expenses ranging from unplanned oral surgeries to a home improvement project gone well beyond budget and we were starting to get behind on bills. It didn’t take much for me to instantly want to turn to my credit cards for a simple solution.  After all, I do make a living working on computers. Why should I have to downgrade on a monitor just because my last one unexpectedly went bad. If anything, it was time for an upgrade. After a day or so of shopping I had a few prospects in mind. But I had been wrestling with the prospect of using my credit card. I knew that the right way to get something new is to save up and buy it with cash but this seemed like an exception (this feeling is usually the first indication that you have a weakness). After all, we don’t have another monitor and all of my finance info is saved on that computer. We use it for movies, games, work ect. If we have to spend money to buy a new monitor, then we should have another great one. Right?

Are you seeing where the materialism is sneaking in? The truth is, yes I needed a new screen, but, like it or not, it didn’t have to be top of the line, or even middle of the road. Looking back on it, thinking that I was going to go into hundreds of dollars of debt to get a brighter, higher definition picture of the same internet that every computer goes to seems not only silly, but a little scary. My wife and I both drive older paid off cars, we have a 23” TV in our living room that I bought for $50 almost 10 years ago and every piece of furniture in our house was either a hand-me-down, or bought at a thrift store for $30 or less. In fact, even the monitor that just broke was a free upgrade that came with the computer that we bought over 2 years ago. We don’t often give in to advertising or the urge to “keep up with the joneses”, so realizing how quickly I was ready to abandon our budget and turn back to credit cards was a real eye opener for me.

Well, it ends up that there was an old 15” CRT monitor stashed in the back of a closet at the office. I lugged that home last Thursday and it’s sitting on my desk at home right now. My wife and I decided that we would wait and save up the money for a new monitor. I can’t say that I’m completely satisfied with the outcome, after all, I still really want a new Hi-Def screen. But at least I made the right decision. And some good did come of the situation. My previously unknown weakness managed to surface and I was able to identify it before it could do any damage. So now that I know, I’ll have time to pray and work on my new problem while we save up for a few other things that my wife and I need more than I need a new screen.