Financial Freedom Friday :)

So long, farewell...
Posting what's on my heart today. It's not really crunchy or earth mama-ish. We've decided to go radical to become debt free. Our beloved minivan is now listed on Craigslist. I keep reminding myself that automatic doors are not worth an extra $300 a month. After we sell this, the only debt we will owe is student loan debt and I've been trying to justify in my mind why we shouldn't have to pay this back and why it sucks and blah, blah. I'm done trying to justify it. Yes, some of it was used for school, but some of it wasn't. We owe this money and rightfully deserve to  pay it back. We are believing that God will provide the means to pay this off much sooner than 20 years of monthly payments. I just finished reading The Blessed Life
and it truly has changed the way Seth and I view finances and generosity. I summarized the most impacting part of the book for me...


First principle of living the blessed life - 

1. Get out of debt.

"We purchased that 73 station wagon with 130k miles for a very simple reason, we could pay cash. It was the only running vehicle I could find that we could pay cash. Prior to that purchase, we had been driving a one year old, fully loaded Oldsmobile. It was a big nice car with a big fat payment, $370. It didn't take long for the Lord to show us how absurd this was from a stewardship standpoint. In fact - it was ridiculous. 

God had told us to sell it and work toward getting out of debt, so we did. We prayed over the station wagon and we loved it b/c, though it wasn't much to look at, we knew we were in the center of God's will. It took us one year to get completely out of debt. I know you may be thinking that it would take you much longer, but let me tell you what we did to make it a reality. 

During that season of time, we didn't buy anything that wasn't a true necessity. We didn't go out to eat. We didn't go to the movies. We didn't buy any new clothes. We bought nothing during that time b/c we had made a solemn commitment to get out of debt - no matter how long it took. We said to the Lord, We are serious about this, and we showed it.  When God saw that we were serious about our commitment to get out of debt, He began to bless us tremendously. That is why we were able to become debt free in only one year. 

God stands ready and willing to provide all of heaven's help if only you will take a step of faith and begin."

Thank you Robert Morris for your testimony and this book! You are impacting lives daily!! God is good! 

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