Sunday, July 28, 2013
Ready or Not...
This week has included a couple of meetings that have sent us slightly reeling in a new direction that none of us were quite ready for. A couple of years ago I attended a meeting to learn about high school transcripts and what kind of courses I needed to make sure were on them in order for those transcripts to benefit my children when it comes to college admissions. I was cool with that. Didn't seem too hard and didn't really make things seem like a short time table. However, this week we attended two college prep meetings and those meetings have our minds swirling in many different directions and left us all wishing we could SLOW life down. I'm SO not ready for my girls to be grown. I cannot even fathom what life looks like after they've graduated from high school and I am honestly scared that I'm not going to handle it well. So, if you see me in public and I walk past you with a glazed look in my eyes and without speaking, just know that I have thoughts of PLAN, PSAT, SAT, ACTs, scholarship applications, transcripts, aptitude tests, career decisions, college choices, but espcially my little girls growing up flooding my mind. Lord, help me!
Friday, July 26, 2013
Jehovah Jireh
Lately when it comes to finances my head is swimming, sometimes I want to scream and the enemy is trying for all he's worth to make me panic. You see we'd been living like brats. Not really paying attention to what was coming in verses what was going out, living to some degree out of our savings without even realizing it. We'd become very complacent. Not that we were being big spenders, just not living out of a budget, eating out too much. Not staying aware of how much we were spending, etc. Well, I don't even really know how it happened, but I got a wake up call and when I did I realized most of our savings was gone and that because my husband wasn't getting any overtime and changes in tax witholdings his check was not enough to cover all of the expenses every month and that along with waaaayyyy too many trips eating out and extras at the grocery store was the reason that we'd run through our savings.
This is where we see God in the midst of things, though. I have been doing some side work for several months now and with the exception of a used digital piano for our girls and a few small expenses here and there (i.e. the occasional pedicure) I had spent very little of my money. Since this realization we've had over $300 in medical expenses and have so far spent $462.50 towards this homeschool year (and still have around $125 of curriculum to purchase along with some yearly supplies and will have some more co-op fees, though I don't expect those to be too high) and $50 on my husband's birthday. After all of these expenses we will have a little left in saving (we do still have a separate emergency fund per Mr. Dave Ramsey)and my small income will be enough to cover the gap in our monthly expenses.
Things are tight and we're having to be very careful and we are very hopeful that this is short term, but it's still hard, frustrating, unpleasant, stressful at times. I know that our finances really aren't anyone else's business and I haven't said all of this to garner any pity, but wanted to share some truths that I cling to in times like this. You see, just this morning Satan tried to lure me away from tithing. Reminding me that if we stopped tithing there'd be a bigger cushion in the account and things would not be quite so tough, but that will not work with me. We believe what God's Word says about tithing and we believe that since we have been faithful tithers He has been faithful in meeting our needs. That doesn't mean things are always easy, but since we began to tithe the bills are always paid and so are the necessities and many times we've been able to afford wants and even some luxuries. You see, I thought I'd just taken a little side job to help a friend and to have a little extra spending $ here and there, but I wasn't really using the $. God knew ahead that I would need it and I believe he prompted me not to spend it. Without that $ this season of preparing for the homeschool year and my husband having surgery could have felt disastrous, but instead we have seen God's hand of provision and not a single need has gone unmet.
Just wanted to remind you all that God is faithful. He is Jehovah Jireh the Lord Who Provides and He shall supply all of your needs according to His riches!
Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread. Psalm 37:25
This is where we see God in the midst of things, though. I have been doing some side work for several months now and with the exception of a used digital piano for our girls and a few small expenses here and there (i.e. the occasional pedicure) I had spent very little of my money. Since this realization we've had over $300 in medical expenses and have so far spent $462.50 towards this homeschool year (and still have around $125 of curriculum to purchase along with some yearly supplies and will have some more co-op fees, though I don't expect those to be too high) and $50 on my husband's birthday. After all of these expenses we will have a little left in saving (we do still have a separate emergency fund per Mr. Dave Ramsey)and my small income will be enough to cover the gap in our monthly expenses.
Things are tight and we're having to be very careful and we are very hopeful that this is short term, but it's still hard, frustrating, unpleasant, stressful at times. I know that our finances really aren't anyone else's business and I haven't said all of this to garner any pity, but wanted to share some truths that I cling to in times like this. You see, just this morning Satan tried to lure me away from tithing. Reminding me that if we stopped tithing there'd be a bigger cushion in the account and things would not be quite so tough, but that will not work with me. We believe what God's Word says about tithing and we believe that since we have been faithful tithers He has been faithful in meeting our needs. That doesn't mean things are always easy, but since we began to tithe the bills are always paid and so are the necessities and many times we've been able to afford wants and even some luxuries. You see, I thought I'd just taken a little side job to help a friend and to have a little extra spending $ here and there, but I wasn't really using the $. God knew ahead that I would need it and I believe he prompted me not to spend it. Without that $ this season of preparing for the homeschool year and my husband having surgery could have felt disastrous, but instead we have seen God's hand of provision and not a single need has gone unmet.
Just wanted to remind you all that God is faithful. He is Jehovah Jireh the Lord Who Provides and He shall supply all of your needs according to His riches!
Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread. Psalm 37:25
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