The Happy Life is the Vintage Life
By Drenda Keesee
In the culture, young people are always gravitating toward things from the past like vintage clothing, record players, and more. I even heard bell-bottoms are coming back!
But what if this is about more than just style?
What if young people are nostalgic for a simpler time?
Young people are suffering in today’s culture because there is no stability.
I talk about vintage living a lot when I speak at events, and that doesn’t mean I’m saying to put shag carpet in your house and cook all your meals in a nice dress and pearls like the 1950s housewives on T.V.
Vintage living means returning to a stable, God-focused, family-centered life.
I want to give you some useful tips you can apply to your everyday life to help you overcome the culture and embrace the life God created you to live.
You Were Meant to Stand Out
The culture’s idea of happiness is fitting into whatever is popular at the moment, but God wants all of us to know that He made each of us unique. Every person can bring something to the table.
In most modern families today, each person is living their own life, but God created His family to live life together. We are called to complement each other, not avoid each other.
So many young people are trying to fit in and are coming up short. The enemy wants to alienate and isolate us so that he can lie to us. That’s exactly how he dealt with Eve in the Garden. The voice of doubt questions God’s view of our value and provision and tries to separate us from Him to whisper another message in our ear.
News flash! God wants you to stand out!
He has uniquely created you with a purpose and calling for your life that’s unlike anybody else’s—so it’s time to quit comparing and start accepting and celebrating your unique design in Christ.
Don’t Be Afraid of Down Time
In the 1950s, there was such a thing as family time. Whether it was sitting down to a home-cooked meal or watching the one television in the family room, spending time with your family was a way of life. Now it is hard to imagine a dinner that doesn’t come from a box or a dinner table that isn’t vibrating with smartphones.
Do realtors even say “family room” anymore, or is it just the living room?
It can be hard to put our to-do lists aside and rest, but it is so important! I’ve learned that if you don’t make relaxing a priority, it probably isn’t going to happen.
We must set aside time to be with God, laugh with friends and family, and enjoy a hobby. In a race, you take time to rehydrate, right? Well, in life, we have to stop and be refreshed by connecting with loved ones; this is what helps us to keep going!
It refreshes our spirits, souls, and bodies when we spend time in God’s presence.
Let Go of Negativity
In the culture, angry teenagers are just a “normal” part of life. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard things like, “Oh, those teenage years are tough,” or “Just wait; when your kids are teenagers, they’ll rebel.”
That just proves how the culture normalizes negativity.
As Christians, we need to live different lives than the culture. We are called to make the choice to rejoice in every situation!
Go HERE to my teaching, “Lost Generation,” for guidance on having conversations with your children about tough issues they are facing.
Don’t get stuck thinking about the negative things in your life—everything that seems wrong.
Proverbs 17:22 tells us, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
When you choose joy by looking at God’s Word and setting your mind on His wonderful promises to you, He can shatter those chains of negativity and speak truth into your heart.
Choose to rejoice today about who God is and all that He is doing!
No matter what the culture is trying to convince you of, you need to measure everything against God’s Word. His Word never changes.
Choose NOW to get back on track with living your life and shaping your family according to God’s Word, not according to your feelings or the world’s opinions. Choose today to be the person, spouse, and parent God has called you to be, and let God’s power be evident in your family!
~ Drenda
Listen in Now to Faith Life Church!
Drenda Keesee’s contagious zeal and humorous personal experiences help make her ministry of spiritual, emotional and relational wholeness one that will bless your life and spark a new fire in your spirit.
A wife of over 30 years and a mother of five children, Drenda has ministered at churches, seminars, and conferences, and through the mediums of television and radio, for more than 20 years.
Her books, The New Vintage Family, Better Than You Think, and She Gets It are available wherever books are sold. In these heartfelt books, Drenda shares her personal journey and the life lessons that have brought her to where she is today, as well as practical answers that all people need to live a joyful life.
Drenda and her husband Gary founded Faith Life Now, a ministry designed to spread the message of freedom in the areas of finances, faith, marriage, and family. Tune in for their weekly messages here. Faith Life Now hosts conferences worldwide, and sponsors both Fixing the Money Thing, which Drenda co-hosts with her husband Gary, and Drenda.
Through their own life experiences, the Keesees have found the principles from God’s Word to be powerful and effective. At one point, Drenda was a young, suicidal feminist with no hope of ever being “good enough” for her own standards of perfection. She never wanted the “inconvenience” of a husband or children, and she was on her own path to success. But the stress of trying to achieve perfection and perform for love left her broken and used. She had success, but it was nothing compared to the pain and loneliness it had also brought.
That’s when God got a hold of her heart. It was there—at her lowest point—that she found the One who accepted and loved her, faults and all. Since that transformation, Drenda has had a passion to reach women who find themselves where she once was.
She married Gary after attending college, and there she found herself in a personal boot camp of sorts. She says, “I cried and told God, ‘I can do anything but be a wife and mother.’” She committed to learning how to do it God’s way. Through the many years of raising their children and struggling to make ends meet, Drenda learned from their mistakes. “I didn’t know how to be a wife and mother, but God saved our marriage, taught us how to parent our children for success, showed us how to have financial success, and then irony of all ironies, He called us to ministry.” It’s truly because of these life experiences that Drenda can now share so many insightful principles for people who are now going through the same struggles.
