My husband and I had something really exciting happen in our lives this week.
We paid off the mortgage on our home! I was super excited the day I put the check in the mail. I had a hard time containing my excitement because I wanted to shout it from the rooftops, but yet I didn't know if that was the 'proper' thing to do. I did call my mom though and gave her the great news and she was super-excited for us. She even told me it would be a good idea to share that information with our kids (I hadn't thought of that yet) as it would be a good way to talk to them about diligence, saving, being responsible, and working towards a goal. Another way to show them that living within one's means, instead of in debt, or paycheck-to-paycheck was how we should strive to live our financial lives and that we were setting that example for them.
As I said earlier, I was so incredibly excited, I really wanted to just blast it out to everyone. I was so darn happy!
But then a couple days later on Sunday, the congregation was asked for any praise reports. My first thought was, "oh yeah! this is worth praising!" and I wanted to share. But I don't have a spring attached to my arm so it didn't pop up there immediately, so several other folks started sharing first. As I was listening to them, and rejoicing in their good news, and praising God for all their goodness, I started thinking that my good news... well, just maybe wasn't good enough worth sharing. Which is weird because just two days earlier
I was so excited I wanted to shout it from the rooftops (and did shout a little to a few people, praising God all the way), but as I listened to the wonderful praise reports of God healing cancer from someone's body, or lining up new jobs for someone, or someone coming to Christ and starting their journey of giving their heart to God and therefore living for God...I started to think my 'report' maybe wasn't worth reporting. I didn't realize at the time that ALL of God's good works are worthy of praise. Instead I started to discount His work in me. Which was wrong. I shrank down so low in my feelings of worthiness that I almost didn't share my praise report. If it weren't for prompting from my hubby, I might not have (sad as that is to say).
But if I don't share it and shout it from the rooftops, then I am NOT giving HIM the glory for its accomplishment! And it truly is HIS accomplishment. It is through His direction and guidance through the years that allowed this to happen. It is not because of what my husband or I did ourselves, it is from what God has done through us in our lives.
I had to realize that by not sharing it freely, I was stifling His work. I was hiding it. If I won't let His light shine through me at every opportunity then how can I expect to keep that light burning? We sing the song "This little light of mine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine", but if we don't let it shine, then we are not being a disciple for the Lord. So no matter how that light is shining through you right now, whether it be from your body being cured of cancer, or a new job prospect you received because of your faithful prayer, or your spouse that has now come to the Lord (Praise God!), or that through your faithfulness, you are now mortgage-free and therefore that much closer to being debt-free and not "a slave to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7), REJOICE! And Praise God!
They are ALL examples of His light shining through you. Share it! Share it in such a way that you give all the glory to God! He is the one who deserves the glory, we are simply just His servants doing His work.
So I write this to publicly repent for almost hiding, or covering the light that God has put in me. I can't worry what other people think (as Pastor Chris reminded us Sunday), I only have to concern myself with being a good servant and steward for God. It is He who I am trying to follow and He who I am trying to emulate, and therefore, He who I look to for guidance and approval. I know He would not want me to downplay or hide His Glory. Therefore, I repent to Him for not shouting His glory and praise when given the chance.
Lord, I love you and I thank you for all that you have done in my life. I thank you for my husband, who started me on the path to you. I thank you for my parents, who did not instill a spend-thrift mentality in me. I thank you Lord, for your patience, as it took me years to hear you, but now that I do, I pray for my ears to be continually open to listen to your guidance and do your will in all aspects of my life. I love you Lord!
I PRAISE GOD for His faithfulness! AMEN!!!
Showing posts with label debt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label debt. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Getting out of debt
Woohoo!
I just wrote the check for the mortgage that will bring our balance down to under $20,000!!! (Granted its still nineteen thousand, but its under twenty!) I am excited!
I love paying off debt.
I get giddy and really happy when I get to do this.
And.... I haven't been able to do this for awhile so I am really excited to be closing the gap on one of our two final debts.
I remember the excitement (just like now) that I had when I paid off our first student loan. It felt so great to be dropping that check in the mail. In fact, (I normally brought my mail to the office to mail it from there instead of making a trip to the post office), and I remember bringing that envelope and announcing to my co-workers that it was my final check to pay off our student loans. That announcement was met with a small round of cheers from my happy co-workers who could understand my excitement.
A few years later we bought some new vehicles and we had been saving up for quite some time so we were able to pay all three vehicles off within a year. (We had intended on paying cash at that point for car purchases, but HADN'T intended on purchasing THREE within a six week period, so we didn't have enough saved to pay for all of them at once. I paid the first one in cash, then had to carry some debt for about 10 months or so (which wasn't so bad considering one of the vehicles was supposed to generate income for us, but that's another LONG story itself that I'm not going to go into that here). But suffice it to say, I was excited to be able to be debt free from car loans. In fact, since that time (2004) we have not bought another vehicle without paying for it 100% in cash.
The reason I share all this background is to explain why I am so excited to FINALLY be able to pay off (or get close to paying off) some debt. As you can see we didn't have any more 'small' debt to pay off. Only our mortgage and a business loan remained. So we have been working to pay these off for about seven years, and now it is almost upon us. Now I am getting giddy with anticipation because we are just around the corner from becoming MORTGAGE DEBT FREE! YYYIIIIIIIPPEEEEEE!!!!!!! I am really looking forward to writing that last mortgage check and dropping it in the mail. I LOVE the feeling of doing that, and as you can tell I am excited for it to happen. I guess I'm even more excited about eliminating this debt, than others, because its been almost 7 years since I've been able to write one of those "final checks", and I'm also excited because its our mortgage! Which obviously is typically a "forever debt" or one that you normally can't get paid off till you are very close to retirement. And even though my husband keeps trying to retire ;) we aren't retired yet, so this is pretty cool.
I share all of this to hopefully provide inspiration to those reading this, that it CAN be done. Put your mind toward tackling any debt you have and work on it whole-heartedly. Don't get caught up in spending all your money, it is much wiser to save it (which also happens to allow you to not get into as much debt, i.e. you can pay cash for purchases instead of getting loans for them).
Our society has gotten us into an economy right now that makes it even more difficult to carry debt, which is all the more reason to be frugal, so that you can survive with these tightened job markets and increasing gas prices. The less debt you have, the less money you need to make ends meet, which is very helpful if your income decreases due to this economy.
Proverbs 22:7 says "Just as the rich rule the poor, so is the borrower a servant to the lender".
Try to be debt-free so that you are not a 'servant' to your debt.
Interest is the biggest waste of a resource in my opinion. I hate to pay interest on something, because I look at that interest charge and think of all the things that I could have bought with that, if I wasn't paying it to a company on debt. I guess its just ingrained in me to feel this way, because it really bugs me down deep. I know not everyone feels that way (but those people usually also wind up living in debt, because the interest doesn't bother them. They see it as a cost of living.) I don't see it this way. I see it as a waste of money. But before I dig too deep into that portion of this topic, let me get back on track and just say how excited I am. If you don't know me personally you may not know that I am definately a 'debt-free mentality' person. This blog has talked a lot about finances but hasn't had many posts on debt. I've found some interesting blogs that follow people's path to becoming debt free in their lives. If you would like to read that type of "hands on, how do I do it too" type of blog, check them out. They are listed below.
http://www.superpositron.com/
http://www.adventures-of-sam.blogspot.com/
And who knows, maybe I'll finally start making some more blog posts about debt and share ideas on how you can avoid it and get out of it faster :)
Until then, have a great day, and follow my motto "If you can't afford it, don't buy it!"
P.S. charging it on a credit card is 'affording it' ONLY if you pay that credit card off in full every month ;0
I just wrote the check for the mortgage that will bring our balance down to under $20,000!!! (Granted its still nineteen thousand, but its under twenty!) I am excited!
I love paying off debt.
I get giddy and really happy when I get to do this.
And.... I haven't been able to do this for awhile so I am really excited to be closing the gap on one of our two final debts.
I remember the excitement (just like now) that I had when I paid off our first student loan. It felt so great to be dropping that check in the mail. In fact, (I normally brought my mail to the office to mail it from there instead of making a trip to the post office), and I remember bringing that envelope and announcing to my co-workers that it was my final check to pay off our student loans. That announcement was met with a small round of cheers from my happy co-workers who could understand my excitement.
A few years later we bought some new vehicles and we had been saving up for quite some time so we were able to pay all three vehicles off within a year. (We had intended on paying cash at that point for car purchases, but HADN'T intended on purchasing THREE within a six week period, so we didn't have enough saved to pay for all of them at once. I paid the first one in cash, then had to carry some debt for about 10 months or so (which wasn't so bad considering one of the vehicles was supposed to generate income for us, but that's another LONG story itself that I'm not going to go into that here). But suffice it to say, I was excited to be able to be debt free from car loans. In fact, since that time (2004) we have not bought another vehicle without paying for it 100% in cash.
The reason I share all this background is to explain why I am so excited to FINALLY be able to pay off (or get close to paying off) some debt. As you can see we didn't have any more 'small' debt to pay off. Only our mortgage and a business loan remained. So we have been working to pay these off for about seven years, and now it is almost upon us. Now I am getting giddy with anticipation because we are just around the corner from becoming MORTGAGE DEBT FREE! YYYIIIIIIIPPEEEEEE!!!!!!! I am really looking forward to writing that last mortgage check and dropping it in the mail. I LOVE the feeling of doing that, and as you can tell I am excited for it to happen. I guess I'm even more excited about eliminating this debt, than others, because its been almost 7 years since I've been able to write one of those "final checks", and I'm also excited because its our mortgage! Which obviously is typically a "forever debt" or one that you normally can't get paid off till you are very close to retirement. And even though my husband keeps trying to retire ;) we aren't retired yet, so this is pretty cool.
I share all of this to hopefully provide inspiration to those reading this, that it CAN be done. Put your mind toward tackling any debt you have and work on it whole-heartedly. Don't get caught up in spending all your money, it is much wiser to save it (which also happens to allow you to not get into as much debt, i.e. you can pay cash for purchases instead of getting loans for them).
Our society has gotten us into an economy right now that makes it even more difficult to carry debt, which is all the more reason to be frugal, so that you can survive with these tightened job markets and increasing gas prices. The less debt you have, the less money you need to make ends meet, which is very helpful if your income decreases due to this economy.
Proverbs 22:7 says "Just as the rich rule the poor, so is the borrower a servant to the lender".
Try to be debt-free so that you are not a 'servant' to your debt.
Interest is the biggest waste of a resource in my opinion. I hate to pay interest on something, because I look at that interest charge and think of all the things that I could have bought with that, if I wasn't paying it to a company on debt. I guess its just ingrained in me to feel this way, because it really bugs me down deep. I know not everyone feels that way (but those people usually also wind up living in debt, because the interest doesn't bother them. They see it as a cost of living.) I don't see it this way. I see it as a waste of money. But before I dig too deep into that portion of this topic, let me get back on track and just say how excited I am. If you don't know me personally you may not know that I am definately a 'debt-free mentality' person. This blog has talked a lot about finances but hasn't had many posts on debt. I've found some interesting blogs that follow people's path to becoming debt free in their lives. If you would like to read that type of "hands on, how do I do it too" type of blog, check them out. They are listed below.
http://www.superpositron.com/
http://www.adventures-of-sam.blogspot.com/
And who knows, maybe I'll finally start making some more blog posts about debt and share ideas on how you can avoid it and get out of it faster :)
Until then, have a great day, and follow my motto "If you can't afford it, don't buy it!"
P.S. charging it on a credit card is 'affording it' ONLY if you pay that credit card off in full every month ;0
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
God will help you out of debt
Have you ever heard the Bible story about the widow's oil? Its found in 2 Kings 4. To paraphrase it here, a woman's husband had died. He owed a bunch of money to a man. She didn't have any money though, or any food. The man told her she had to pay it and if she didn't he would take her sons. She went and sought guidance from Elisha. He asked her what she had in her house (her resources). She said nothing but a few drops of oil. He told her to go ask all her neighbors for empty pots. Then to go in her house, close the door, and start filling the pots. She wasn't to stop until every pot was filled. She did this and as soon as the last pot was filled, the oil ran out. Elisha then told her to go sell the oil and use the money to payback the man with whom she had a debt. Then the extra money could be used for her and her sons. When it was all said and done, she had enough money to buy a lot of food for her and her sons, her sons weren't sent into slavery, and the debt was paid off.
In this story we can see that God, through Elisha, showed the widow how to pay off her debt. Often times, as was the case in this story, we have to put our 'hand to the plow' to fulfill God's work. We can't just sit and pray and hope it will be accomplished. We can pray, and God will DIRECT us HOW to accomplish it. Some sort of ACTION is usually required. The action isn't on God's part either. Its on OUR PART. God could have easily erased the debt from that man's memory. Or He could have multiplied the oil in her house by himself. But he wants us to have FAITH in Him, and that usually requires us to be tested in some sort of way. Its very easy to be 'faithful' when everything is right. But when things go wrong, that is when our faith really shows through. So instead of just multiplying the oil in her house, he required her to do something. She had to gather pots from her neighbors. Now you know as well as I do, that in a town like this, all the neighbors already knew her situation. They knew her husband died and they knew she had no money. So they would probably think she was crazy for asking for empty pots ("why do you need a pot, you don't have anything to put in it?!"). So it wasn't just action that was required such as walking door to door and carrying the pots. She had to humble herself to ask for something and not worry about what those people were thinking when she did it. Her trust in God had to be so great, that it would not be overshadowed by any discomfort that was caused by carrying out what she was told to do. Because she did this. She was obedient. God's blessings flowed, and flowed, and flowed, until there were no more pots to contain it. Only then did it stop. When we are stretching our faith, He will meet those needs just as He met the widow's needs. If He did it for her, He will do it for you. In Acts 10:34 Peter says "...of a truth I perceive that God is no respector of persons." This means if He did it for others, He will do it for you as well.
Deuteronomy 28:9 says "If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in His ways, He will establish you as his holy people as he solemnly promised to do." Deuteronomy 28:12 continues, "He will open to you His wonderful treasury of rain in the heavens, to give you fine crops every season. He will bless everything you do; You shall lend to many nations, but shall not borrow from them." God wants you to be a LENDER, NOT A BORROWER. I like how when we keep this verse in context with the preceding verses (28:9), it is all related to our OBEDIENCE... connect the dots here... it takes ACTION on our part.
If we are OBEDIENT to God, we can be put in a position to become lenders, not borrowers. Remember... we can be put in a position to become lenders, not borrowers. This doesn't mean its going to happen overnight. It may take time. It also doesn't mean its going to happen to everybody. Your hand has to push the plow, your work is going to be involved. So its up to you whether you can or can't. If you are currently a borrower, work on paying off your debts. Once your debts are paid off, your obedience and faithfulness to God can allow you to then become the Lender. This isn't a fast-food, instant gratification scenario. It will take time to move from one position to the other. Keep pressing through and you will reach the goal of becoming debt-free.
Debt-cancellation is for today-its not just some neat OLD story from a book written a long time ago. Hebrews 13:8 says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever." He did it before (with the widow), He'll do it again!
God is willing and able to bless you with miracle debt cancellation. But I bet there is going to be some ACTION involved with it! ;)
In this story we can see that God, through Elisha, showed the widow how to pay off her debt. Often times, as was the case in this story, we have to put our 'hand to the plow' to fulfill God's work. We can't just sit and pray and hope it will be accomplished. We can pray, and God will DIRECT us HOW to accomplish it. Some sort of ACTION is usually required. The action isn't on God's part either. Its on OUR PART. God could have easily erased the debt from that man's memory. Or He could have multiplied the oil in her house by himself. But he wants us to have FAITH in Him, and that usually requires us to be tested in some sort of way. Its very easy to be 'faithful' when everything is right. But when things go wrong, that is when our faith really shows through. So instead of just multiplying the oil in her house, he required her to do something. She had to gather pots from her neighbors. Now you know as well as I do, that in a town like this, all the neighbors already knew her situation. They knew her husband died and they knew she had no money. So they would probably think she was crazy for asking for empty pots ("why do you need a pot, you don't have anything to put in it?!"). So it wasn't just action that was required such as walking door to door and carrying the pots. She had to humble herself to ask for something and not worry about what those people were thinking when she did it. Her trust in God had to be so great, that it would not be overshadowed by any discomfort that was caused by carrying out what she was told to do. Because she did this. She was obedient. God's blessings flowed, and flowed, and flowed, until there were no more pots to contain it. Only then did it stop. When we are stretching our faith, He will meet those needs just as He met the widow's needs. If He did it for her, He will do it for you. In Acts 10:34 Peter says "...of a truth I perceive that God is no respector of persons." This means if He did it for others, He will do it for you as well.
Deuteronomy 28:9 says "If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in His ways, He will establish you as his holy people as he solemnly promised to do." Deuteronomy 28:12 continues, "He will open to you His wonderful treasury of rain in the heavens, to give you fine crops every season. He will bless everything you do; You shall lend to many nations, but shall not borrow from them." God wants you to be a LENDER, NOT A BORROWER. I like how when we keep this verse in context with the preceding verses (28:9), it is all related to our OBEDIENCE... connect the dots here... it takes ACTION on our part.
If we are OBEDIENT to God, we can be put in a position to become lenders, not borrowers. Remember... we can be put in a position to become lenders, not borrowers. This doesn't mean its going to happen overnight. It may take time. It also doesn't mean its going to happen to everybody. Your hand has to push the plow, your work is going to be involved. So its up to you whether you can or can't. If you are currently a borrower, work on paying off your debts. Once your debts are paid off, your obedience and faithfulness to God can allow you to then become the Lender. This isn't a fast-food, instant gratification scenario. It will take time to move from one position to the other. Keep pressing through and you will reach the goal of becoming debt-free.
Debt-cancellation is for today-its not just some neat OLD story from a book written a long time ago. Hebrews 13:8 says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever." He did it before (with the widow), He'll do it again!
God is willing and able to bless you with miracle debt cancellation. But I bet there is going to be some ACTION involved with it! ;)
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