A couple weeks ago, I mentioned a new category of “Living Simple” that I wanted to write a few posts about. Since then, I’ve written a few things in that category, but the main reason I started it was for this post. I’ve put off writing this one. While I already know that we’re on the fringe of conservatism, I don’t always enjoy hearing everyone tell me so. This post will serve to certify and seal any extreme beliefs you might hold about my notions.

While we have a comfortable house here in suburbia, USA and thank God for our circumstances, nevertheless, we are pursuing a larger land purchase unless the Lord decides otherwise. It may work out; it may not. Many people have done this sort of thing—left city life for the country—but perhaps not everyone has the same core reason that we have for pursuing this course.

Many small factors make a move to the country appealing to us. Our kids eat fruit by the pound. Oranges are the only fruit that doesn’t require “chilling hours” –unless your kids will eat lemons and limes– so we’d like to have a mini orchard of fruit and berries, which is impossible in Florida. If you were paying our grocery bill, this thought might appeal to you too. If you were paying the milk bill too, a goat or cow might even cross your mind as well.

Because we are comfortable suburbanites, we have a concrete backyard pool and a manufactured swing set. While this is not a bad thing, I’d like to replace the chlorine water and plastic slides with a good old-fashioned creek, tire swing, and tree house. Why? The thought of not paying five grand to remarsite my creek and two Saturdays fixing the wood rot on the play set appeals to me. When a tree branch rots, you throw the tire swing rope onto another branch.

I do not have notions of life being easier. In fact, I know that it will be more work, but it is work that is more rewarding to me than carpools, traffic jams, play date schedules, and cleaning the leaves out of the pool filter.

I’m privileged to have the only house on my street with a front porch, and while not a requirement, it’d be nice not to be the only one sitting on the front porch within miles.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had to take an antihistamine before bed every night if I want to function the following day. When we lived in California for six months, I did not take one pill. It was wonderful. But you do not have to worry about me moving to California. My pocketbook can’t handle it. Neither can my politics. But the fact remains, my nose needs different air.

These are all little reasons that when added up might result in a big reason. But this is not the big reason for us. The reason we desire country life is for the future of our children. We want land because we can afford it at today’s prices after selling our house (in some places, it is $2,000/acre), and we might not be able to afford it later. We want land because we want to give our children a good start in their adult lives and, well, there might be a little in it for us too.

Financial reasons
If the Lord chooses to lead in this way, our children will have the opportunity to begin their marriages with land and shelter debt-free. It is our goal to have our son begin building a home with his dad when he is a teenager. The house would be simple and well designed so that he can add on should a wife and children arrive and as more funds allow. A very open kitchen, dining, living room combination would be appropriate bachelor quarters until the time came to add on.

If you are willing to think outside the box, there are many options for affordable housing that does not resemble paying $75-200/square foot.

I have no doubt that my first daughter would be able to build a house single handedly, but as the Lord leads, perhaps the house building venture would be a good way to test out potential suitors as her father and brother work alongside love-struck boys. No boy who has yet to become a man will be able to handle my first daughter, and house building might be a good way to separate the men from the boys.

When a family is sharing resources, only one tractor is needed instead of five. There is no need to purchase more than one paint sprayer. Only one fence is needed for the property, and there would be many hands to fix a few broken lines. There are also many eyes watching out for you—not like the neighbor who won’t get the newspaper out of your driveway to deter robbers. And so on.

Many Amish, Jewish, and other ethnic groups have practiced this kind of community for centuries and have prospered. I am not thinking up something new and weird, but we are just considering a return to the old ways. It just makes more sense. It is a modern notion to scatter.

Vocational reasons
Without the burden of debt and mortgages, my children would be able to choose a vocation more freely. This applies mostly to my sons, but my daughters’ husbands will also benefit greatly from this. Pastoring small churches, farming, and writing are all vocations that might be otherwise unattainable with the burden of providing for a mortgage. Short- and long-term mission trips are also now easier with the ability to self-fund and not have “stuff” to worry about. The possibilities are endless: from temporarily renting out houses to help pay my son’s medical school bill to having the freedom to tell a corrupt boss that you can just find another job to having a larger cushion to start your own business.

It’s about being even more available to follow God in the way that He leads without the burden of debt. Why continue the American lifestyle just because Sprite wants me to obey my thirst?

Practical reasons
Now, here is where my heart is. I want my daughters and daughter-in-laws close to me so that they will have someone to help them with their first babies, to give them relief when a child has the flu and has been up all night, to tell them which kind of cough doesn’t require a trip to the doctor, to fix the crooked quilt they spent all year on, to give piano lessons to the grandkids, to tell them to get home and make dinner and stop complaining, to tell them to not be short with their boys’ ruckuses, and to love their husbands by never speaking ill of them.

Yes, it’s possible to do some of this from afar, but it is the daily things that make up daily life. Life is a bunch of daily moments, and the ordinary is what life is. It isn’t Thanksgiving and Christmas. And if I have the opportunity to be a part of the small moments, it will be a big moment for me.

I hope to prepare my daughters well before their marriages, but there are some things that are just learned in the dailyness of life. This is going to sound like a criticism, and it is: I can’t rely the modern church to take my daughters under their wing and disciple them in the manner of Titus 2. So with forethought, I am preparing to undertake the task myself for my daughters and for any others the Lord sends my way.