“These disciplines [simplicity, stewardship and sacrifice] reinforce each other, since they relate to our attitude and the use of the resources that have been placed at our disposal.
The discipline of simplicity or frugality refers to a willingness to abstain from using these resources for our own gratification and aggrandizement. A mindset of simplicity helps us resist the cultural endorsement of extravagance and consumption that entices us away from gratitude, trust, and dependence upon the Lord. This discipline frees us from the multiplicity of fleshly desires and anxiety over trivial things, and it helps to deliver us from the bondage of financial debt.
The related discipline of stewardship encourages us to reflect on our lives as managers of the assets of Another. In addition to the usual trilogy of time, talent and treasure, I include the stewardship of the truth we have received as well as the relationships with which we have been entrusted. In this discipline, we periodically review the ways we have been investing these assets.
Sacrifice is a more radical discipline than simplicity in that it involves the occasional risk of giving up something that we would use to meet our needs rather than our wants. This is a faith-building exercise that commits us to entrust ourselves to God’s care.”
Kenneth Boa in Conformed to His Image (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001) 85-86.