What is poverty to you? Is it going without a hamburger at McDonald's, or having to wait until your next monthly pay-check to by some more shoes? Have you ever fielded the question from one of your children 'are we poor?' and your first response is 'well we don't earn as much as other people'? Why is it that we equate poverty with what money we have or do not have? And when is it all about us? As a recovering-poverty-mentality-individual I know that this mindset doesn't give me freedom. I grew up in a household where the answer to the question 'Where did you get that from?' was 'Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.' was the common retort and the shaky foundation of my understanding about how household finances worked. Things just appeared. No mention was even made to man-hours, income, expenditure, fixed commitments and flexible spending.

Contrast that with a child who doesn't know what having shoes on their feet is, let along a new collection of classical books and you gain some perspective.

And to all those people who say that 'money doesn't buy you happiness' - hogwash! How can one be content with little when they have little.

Yes, you can be content with less when you have more, and I embrace the movement to simplicity, but don't you think it would be impossible to be grateful for not having something that you need.

And perhaps this is where the crunch comes. Many of us have what we need, if we are really honest with ourselves, but before we indulge in the things we want, could spare a thought of meeting the poverty in this world.

No, we don't all have to go on building projects to third world countries or sponsor orphans, although these things do also help. What about meeting the poverty in our own countries, in our own cities and in our own neighbourhoods.

Whether we realise it or not, poverty is everywhere but it has different guises.

For some it is not having petrol to go to visit a sick relative, others - no firewood, or clothes that are in tatters (and you just thought people enjoyed dressing like that?). For others their lack is company, or the ability to integrate into society.

Poverty in its purest form is the lacking of something.

When we take a step to providing for someone's lack then we are being like Jesus "supplying all their needs according to his riches" - or walking the talk as other would say.

So what does this look like: volunteering your children to visit older folks, giving of the abundance of your vegetable garden when you can, passing on your pre-loved clothes to the neighbour's children, lending out your lawnmower or other appliances (that just sit there year-round otherwise).

Thinking like this can help lift you out of your selfish mindset and leads you to appreciate what you do have. It shows your children that things don't 'just appear' or 'just happen' - that it takes people. People who trade their time, talents and resources to make things happen for others.

How can you provide for someones poverty today? Or perhaps if you can't answer this question, simply be prepared to open your own eyes and begin looking for this new definition of poverty around you.

Postscript: Blog Action Day have this post that gives you even more ideas on what you can do.