As my husband left the room, one of my daughters looked up at me and said, “Mama, why do other kids, who did not come out of your belly live with us?”
Amazed and honestly a bit overwhelmed with her question, I answered, “Well that is a big questions with a lot of different answers, but what I will tell you tonight is I think the most important answer. Mommy and Daddy open up our homes to others who do not have another place to go, because we believe that when we help others, we are helping Jesus.”
She looked at me and said, “but now we are out of rooms in our house, where do the rest of the kids go, to Uncle Eli?” I laughed at this, seeing her innocent recognition that we are not alone in this journey, their are others who create spaces in their lives and their homes for those who do not have a place to call their home. We aren’t called to live this life on our own and when we need help, there are people around us, who we can lean on. 
This conversation touched my heart, to see that our little girl has witnessed the simplicity of the gospel. We have more, we share and we give away. Simplicity has been a word that I have struggled to always see manifest in my life as a Christian in the western world. My kids have been on more flights by the age of 6 then I was on at the age of 15 and I believe if I got rid of half of their toys, it would take them a week to notice they were missing.
How can we live a simple life in the materialistic western society in which we live? For me, the answer lies in the manifestation of the Gospel in our lives. There is simplicity in reading and understanding the gospel and believing that, that same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives with in you and he gives us the strength to open up our homes, share our resources, and to walk in the obedience in which he called us to today.
