May I never become so attached to a certain level of income or standard of living that I could not be happy with less. Everything is relative, especially the relationship of money to happiness. It is an old cliche that money cannot buy happiness, but it is often hard to truly believe that. Help me find happiness in ways that do not require a great deal of money and be ready to accept whatever setbacks God chooses to send me.
Devotional Practice
Get a bowl (about the size of a cereal or soup bowl) and fill it with pennies. Put the bowl on your altar or in a special place. Let the pennies represent your current wealth or standard of living. Each day take one penny out and make an affirmation or say a prayer similar to the one above. Do this until the bowl is empty.
As you watch the bowl becoming emptier and emptier, find ways each day that give you joy or happiness that do not require money (or that require considerably less money than you currently spend). Imagine that these will be the only sources of happiness and comfort once the pennies are gone. Reflect on these ways to be happy, and try to make them as important as your current activities that require money, or even more important.
— Tom Cowan in The Way of the Saints