Materialism

    Background

• In the world today, the improvement of technologies calls for materialism in the society.
  
• Being in a country with one of the strongest economy in the world, we are easily prone to becoming materialistic.
  

  
   

• It is sad that we are so engulfed in this materialistic world that we don't even recognize our own addiction for accumulation.
  
• But who's to blame? Our economy is built on the materialistic ideals.
  
• Nevertheless, we all have choices to make when it comes to spending what we want, when we want, and how much we want.
  

 

Causes of Materialism

• Richness/wealth
  
• The more you have, the more you want…you can never be satisfied with what you have.
  
• False perception that materialism is the key to happiness
  
• No self discipline of budgeting your money
  
• Selfishness, self-glorification, and plain addiction (shopaholic).
  

 

Negative Impacts of Materialism

• Addiction. You'll get whatever you want no matter what it takes to get it… you are bound to commit Gluttony
  
• Bad habit of spending. All your money will go out the window for buying things you don't need
  
• Major Distractions from what you're supposed to be doing. Ex: videogames, shopping, etc.
  

  
   

  • Negative Spiritual Impacts:
    
• Greed: you will want more!!!
  
• Gluttony: Too much of anything is bad… it doesn't have to be food, it's an excess of anything and everything.
  
• Selfishness: You won't want to share God's blessings with anyone
  
• Pride: You like bragging about the things you have. Ex: MTV Cribs…
  

 

How to Get rid of Materialism

• Acknowledge that whatever you have belongs to God and it must be used for Good.
  
• "All your wealth and richness is God's gift to you, what you do with it is your gift to God"
  
• Share!!!! Be generous. Whatever you give, it will be given back to you tenfold.
  
• Control yourself. You don't need to get everything you want. You can live without it!
  
• Understand that materialism will not bring you long term happiness. Once you lived out the hype of having a certain material, you'll find it collecting dust in your room.
  
• Know the difference between what you NEED and what you WANT.
  
  • Your NEEDS are those things that you must have in order to survive (enough portion of food, gas for your car, toiletries, etc.
    
  • Your WANTS are those things that you can live without. It is usually driven by human desires rather than human needs.
    

Jesus Story

    One day, when Jesus was with His apostles, He told them a parable about giving alms.

        He said,

There were two people that went to church one afternoon.

One was a rich woman who donated all her excess money and jewelries to the church.

    The other woman was this really poor servant who gave her last penny to the church as an offering to God.

    Now, which one do you think gave the most?

The apostles quickly answered Him, "Well my Lord, the first woman of course! She gave away her jewelries along with some money!"

Jesus then replied to them "Amen, I say to you. But you are wrong. The rich woman who gave money and jewelries may have given more than the poor woman, but she still walked away wealthy. The poor woman on the other hand had only one penny. Nevertheless, the poor woman gave more because that was her very last penny that she had earned and saved. Instead of buying food for herself with it, she donated it to the church."

 

Group Discussion Questions

What do you think the moral of the story is? How can you relate this to materialism?

 

How else can we avoid materialism?