{"id":2876,"date":"2012-07-19T05:48:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T09:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2012-07-18T21:38:34","modified_gmt":"2012-07-19T01:38:34","slug":"when-i-was-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html","title":{"rendered":"When I was rich"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When I was a child, I thought we were rich. \u00a0In reality, we were not. \u00a0Yet, I seem to have always had an exalted idea of my lifestyle. \u00a0There are a few things that I gage weath by:<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Do I have enough money to go out to eat at least once a week?<\/strong> \u00a0It doesn’t matter whether I actually go out to eat. \u00a0The standard is if I have the money. \u00a0Lunch money is my standard.<\/p>\n

2. Do I have money in the bank?<\/strong> \u00a0It doesn’t matter how much money. \u00a0I need just enough to keep the check my husband wrote and did not tell me about from bouncing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>3. \u00a0Do I have extra money in my pocket that isn’t earmarked for a necessity?<\/strong> \u00a0Of course, women have handbags but you understand.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Super Rich bonus: \u00a0Did I find a $5 or $10 bill in a pocket of the pants I put on this morning?<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Does my car have gas in it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

6. \u00a0If not, do I have enough money to put gas in the car so I get home?<\/strong><\/p>\n

7. \u00a0Can I pay for the cart of weekly groceries that I’m pushing into the cashier’s aisle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

8. \u00a0Can I pay the monthly household expenses: house, water, electricity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

9. \u00a0If not, do I have something that I can sell?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>10. \u00a0Can I afford a $1 iced tea at McDonald’s if I get thirsty when I’m driving in the car?<\/strong> \u00a0Again, I don’t have to actually buy the tea. \u00a0I have to be able to buy it.<\/p>\n

11. \u00a0Can I afford to turn down the A\/C to a comfortable range while I am sleeping?<\/strong> \u00a0During the day, I can keep the A\/C at an oppressively hot level. \u00a0Therefore, \u00a0night time temperatures are my gage. \u00a0We live in Florida. \u00a0In the winter, I can always put on extra clothes when it is cold and enjoy the refreshing cool air.<\/p>\n

12. \u00a0Can I scape up enough money to share with someone who has a genuine need?<\/strong><\/p>\n

13. \u00a0Do I have enough on school mornings to give each child their lunch money?<\/strong><\/p>\n

14. \u00a0Do I have one really nice dress in my closet that I can wear should there be an emergency?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

15. \u00a0Super Rich Bonus: \u00a0Does each member of our family have one nice set of clothes that we can all wear at the same time should there be an emergency?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every person has his or her own richness-scale. \u00a0Perhaps it tells a good deal about us and our happiness level when you look at how rich we perceive ourselves to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a child, I thought we were rich. \u00a0In reality, we were not. \u00a0Yet, I seem to have always had an exalted idea of my lifestyle. \u00a0There are a few things that I gage weath by: 1. \u00a0Do I have enough money to go out to eat at least once a week? \u00a0It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,20,40,186,61,49,151,4,41,268],"tags":[434,21,699,726,715,703,432,701,6,433],"class_list":["post-2876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","category-faith","category-hope","category-humor","category-inspiration","category-meditation","category-simple-truths","category-spirituality","category-survival","tag-a-gage-for-wealth","tag-christian","tag-faith","tag-faiths","tag-hope","tag-humor","tag-iced-tea","tag-inspiration","tag-simple-scriptural-truths","tag-wealth"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen I was rich - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When I was rich - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was a child, I thought we were rich. \u00a0In reality, we were not. \u00a0Yet, I seem to have always had an exalted idea of my lifestyle. \u00a0There are a few things that I gage weath by: 1. \u00a0Do I have enough money to go out to eat at least once a week? \u00a0It…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-19T09:48:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-07-19T01:38:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/07\/child-counting-money.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When I was rich - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When I was rich - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"When I was a child, I thought we were rich. \u00a0In reality, we were not. \u00a0Yet, I seem to have always had an exalted idea of my lifestyle. \u00a0There are a few things that I gage weath by: 1. \u00a0Do I have enough money to go out to eat at least once a week? \u00a0It…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2012-07-19T09:48:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-07-19T01:38:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/07\/child-counting-money.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html","name":"When I was rich - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/07\/child-counting-money.jpg","datePublished":"2012-07-19T09:48:10+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-19T01:38:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/07\/child-counting-money.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2012\/07\/child-counting-money.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2012\/07\/when-i-was-rich.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When I was rich"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2881,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions\/2881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}