"Money doesn’t make character. It proves character."
How many people do you know who have little money but use is so well, constantly finding creative ways to give it back to God? And how many wealthy people do you know who squander it all away for themselves, giving nothing to the poor and have very little to show at the end of the year?
Just because people get money, doesn't mean they "get" money, does it? If more people "got" money, there would be less debt and more giving, and that to me, is just such a joyful thought!
When Dan and I first committed to be better stewards of our money, it was because we signed up for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University.
We were unable to pay all of our bills, which included a ridiculous amount of debt in the form of more loans than I could count on one hand. Each month became more and more of a challenge....and then I left my job. Before we sold our house. Before we paid off our debt. Before we began tithing.
For six months, we lived paycheck to paycheck before our home sold. We were barely doing so before that period... you know, on two incomes. But then something truly miraculous happened: we began to pay off debt, didn't acquire any new debt and started tithing instead of simply giving an offering. Logistically, we shouldn't have lasted a month, but we went six months in this fashion with Christmas right in the middle.
We learned something then that (sadly) Dave Ramsey's class doesn't teach. TRUST.
Yes, we were learning more practical ways to handle our money. We saw many things -- debt, life insurance, car payments and giving -- in a whole new light that changed our lives in unfathomable ways.
But God saw that we needed to learn more than Dave could teach us. God wanted us to stop the worrying. To give it to him so that we could live our lives more peacefully and focus on what really mattered.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,and he will make your paths straight.
And Matthew 6:25-34 (Jesus' words) says:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdomand his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
It's been two months since I left my full-time job. We have spent the same amount of money on life's necessities, even paid off some medical bills. So it's a reminder to me, after years of coordinating the FPU classes while we so carefully followed all of Dave's advice, we'd forgotten to factor in God's wisdom. I treasure very much all we have learned in FPU and I believe EVERYONE should take this course. But sometimes God wants us to lean on his ways instead of the ways of the world. His ways don't always seem logical, but when we meet him there, he grows us, shapes us, makes us stronger and wiser.
In the years since we leaned so heavily on him, I've been craving those miraculous ways in my life. Oddly, I've done nothing radical for him so he couldn't show me. So here I am, on the edge of a proverbial cliff ready to step out and do the one thing that is so humanly hard: TRUST.
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdomand his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
It's been two months since I left my full-time job. We have spent the same amount of money on life's necessities, even paid off some medical bills. So it's a reminder to me, after years of coordinating the FPU classes while we so carefully followed all of Dave's advice, we'd forgotten to factor in God's wisdom. I treasure very much all we have learned in FPU and I believe EVERYONE should take this course. But sometimes God wants us to lean on his ways instead of the ways of the world. His ways don't always seem logical, but when we meet him there, he grows us, shapes us, makes us stronger and wiser.
In the years since we leaned so heavily on him, I've been craving those miraculous ways in my life. Oddly, I've done nothing radical for him so he couldn't show me. So here I am, on the edge of a proverbial cliff ready to step out and do the one thing that is so humanly hard: TRUST.
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