I love to shop, love to dig through the racks and find the best price I can on an item. I don't shop a lot, although my husband would probably argue that, but I like it. Finding a skirt marked down to $7 from $40 when you have otherwise been having a crummy day can be a little thrill.

Maybe that makes me dumb, but it is fun to me.

I can go to Belk's when they are having a really good sale and get dress shirts for my guys for next to nothing! Love it!!

I don't mind if it's not name brand, who cares! Never been into that stuff anyway.

Now some things you have to have the name brand, no ability to skimp. Some medications are better in the name brand, that's just a fact.

I know I will only take name brand for my thyroid problem. It cost more, but it works so much better for me that it is worth the extra cost. If I am able to function and not feel like a slug, well, that means more to me than a few extra dollars.

There was a time when I was wasting my life, throwing away day after day on things that didn't even matter. Searching everywhere for something I could get to fill the emptiness inside of me.

But, you know what, I only felt emptier.

Now, I know there are those who would look at my life and think, "Why would anyone want to live that way? Look at all that she has given up, at everything her choice has cost her."

And that is true. I don't do some of the things I used to think were fun. I don't go some of the places I used to go. And I have, along the way, lost some of the *friends* that I at one time thought I couldn't live without.

I remember the life that I used to live, not with remorse, but with sadness for the time I wasted. And regret.

My energy, my focus could have been so much better spent if I had focused on what is really important.

And what is really important is who I am, who I am to my family, and to those around me. Because, you see, I am not my own. Someone paid the price for me.

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

Don't feel sorry for me. Don't look at me and think of all the things that YOU think I am missing out on.

I assure you, I am quite happy.

Sure, I don't do some things anymore, and to some it would seem to great a price to pay for the peace that I have.

But, as my Pastor recently said, "Heaven is a bargain at ANY price!"

And I love me a bargain!!