More wasted than used?

10 Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” 13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.

This is not about wastage in the sense of use of material resources like your saying.
There is spiritual meaning being taught here that is about feeding the people bread from heaven to sustain their life.
IT is about not losing any of the people God has blessed, by Him taking good care of them, that they would be fed by God, protected spiritually, gathered up and saved.
And Manna in the OT, bread from Heaven was given to the people of God to sustain them in the wilderness, Christ being the bread come down from from Heaven given only to the people of God to sustain them.

Further on we can see that in what Christ says about this bread.

John 6
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.

36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.

37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will [f]by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
None of this was to be wasted, the manna that was not gathered melted away, and this bread from heaven could not be hoarded or given to another people, it was only for the people of God, as is Christ only for the people of God to save believers and give believers eternal life.

 

I share these thoughts and concerns.

I think about wasting a lot. I feel in my heart that an item’s value and use should be considered before wasting partly because a sense of guilt comes when I do waste something. That said, I’ve kept an ear open for many years for scriptural instruction not to waste but have found very little.

Now, there is plenty of scripture about thanking God for what you have so it would naturally seem to follow that wasting things makes one feel he is acting spoiled or something.

A problem is we gather so many things that you can’t keep it all. If you’ve ever seen a compulsive hoarder’s home like I have you’ve got to feel some empathy for their condition if you feel guilt that you are wasting things but at the same time reason tells a rational person that there has to be limitations on what you make use of and what you discard. There simply is not enough time and resources to make use of all the things of value that you come across in life. You have to draw a line.

At a young age my dad taught me, what I feel was a valuable lesson with a penny.

We were walking and I dropped a penny, I looked at what I had dropped and kept walking. My dad said, aren’t you going to pick that up? And I said, it was only a penny. He stopped and turned around and went back and picked it up and put in his pocket and said, I’ll take it then. Therein, I believe the conflict of thoughts began, it was a rather reckless action on my part yet it was only a penny. If anything, I think the lesson learned was that you should consider your actions of wasting carefully.

On the other hand, I can’t stand unorganized clutter that adds up and will set for years never moving or being made use of. In a sense, I don’t care what it is, I’m not going to live my life buried in clutter and while being a high-powered gatherer, I am also ruthless about discarding things that clutter my life whether they are of value or not.

Over the last 10 years or so I’ve had a large dumpster brought out to our property, 5 acres, 3 or 4 times and have filled them up with items that I’m sure some people would consider treasure. Therein in the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” I simply don’t have the time to try to find homes for the stuff I no longer want.

Example, I bought my kids bikes every couple of years as they grew and now that they are grown, I had bikes sitting and collecting dust. They all needed work which I was capable of doing and would think I could save them and fix them up for my grandkids, but finally I decided if I wanted to give my grandkids bikes I would buy them a nice shiny new one rather than spend my time doing repairs so after like 15 years I dumped them all.

Another example, I own a custom cabinet shop and over the course of 25 years I collected scraps and odds and ends that you wouldn’t believe. Drawers, doors, moldings, laminate, jigs, unfinished cabinets, scraps of all kinds of thicknesses, lengths and species of wood, etc., and a few years ago when changing my woodworking business from cabinets to devices I decided it all had to go for a clean start. I had a fire burning for 3 days!

Anyway, one passage of scripture I refer to about wasting is 1st Corinthians 6:20 but this has more to do with taking care of one’s body and not waste your wellbeing here on earth.

1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

In this case our body comes as a gift from God and we are told to take care of it.

1Co 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

I think we can apply this reasoning to all that God supplies us in life and try to make good use of whatever we are given.

 

water

i often think of the water i waste - how a little conservatism could save quarts to gallons a day especially in the summer.

 

Here are some products I don't like to buy. Can someone tell me why?

Fertilizer for lawns.
Weed B Gone for lawns.
Ice melt for sidewalks in winter.
Drano for opening clogged drains.
Toilet bowl cleaner.


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

No, because you buy the product and literally throw it away or flush it down the drain.

I realize there is some benefit to using the product but I can't get over the fact that I spend money on a product and then throw it on the ground or pour it down the drain..

 

Soap? Shampoo? Toilet paper? Baby wipes?

 

All have the same problem--to use them you must dispose of them--but you use these products over time, not all at once.

 

Bathing? Just gonna get dirty again
Eating? Just gonna get hungry again
Sleeping? Just gonna get tired again

Nah, I get your point, but some people would carry this concept to the extreme.

Reminds me of a saying I read many years ago:

??WHY STUDY??
The more you study, the more you know
The more you know, the more you forget
The more you forget, the less you know
The less you know, the less you forget
The less you forget, the more you know
SO!!!! Why study???