When my husband was laid off from his job last April,when I first found out this was going to happen. I had a panic session,I went out onto our deck and prayed and cried out to God,asking him to not let this happen to us. I was so afraid of what would happen to our family. But within a couple of weeks he was laid off.
The first thing we did was get our budget out and start cutting back. We cut cable,phone,heating bill and electricity. The bills took a little time but cutting the cable bill and phone took a phone call. We got our expenses down as low as we could.
We had only one problem. We were still in debt! We had a car payment (stupid debt) and credit cards (very stupid debt). That's where my panic came in.
We signed up for help that we needed only. We worked and pushed through the rest. We had a rough time and had some help from our church to get us through.But we made it.
We stayed faithful to the Lord. I knew he had a plan for us and I kept telling anyone and everyone I could that it was all going to work out because we are in God's hands and he was going to take care of us. And oh how he did.
We managed to keep our utilities low and I am still going to do this even though he is working now. We paid off 2 of our credit cards and made big payments to the other 2 and on our car loan. We are now ahead on the car loan and taking big chunks out of our remaining 2 credit cards.
You know God's not going to take you through something like this without teaching you a valuable lesson. Maybe it's something you knew already but was just to stubborn to acknowledge it or do what needed to be done to put it to work.
We learned it is vitally important to live below your means. It's not demeaning to live this way,in fact it's refreshing. Give your tithes to the Lord and remain faithful to him. And it's so important to save,you must save a portion of your income no matter what. Also up there as equally important is to get out and stay out of debt. We are working our way out of debt and are going to try to not accummulate any more stupid debt. The only debt we will aquire is a house. But that is more of an investment rather than just debt. We can do things to increase it's value making it an investment. With credit card debt and auto loans all that is done is paying and paying and paying some more,nothing you can do with this debt can make it into an investment. Its just wise to stear away from that kind of debt all together if at all possible.
We have a new understanding for money and debt and know how God intended for us to live. Instead of how we ended up living. It's freeing to give up what you really don't need,to imbrace the freedom of saving,paying of debt (dreaming of the day when it's all paid off) investing in your future and living below your means. I am loving our new life,I no longer feel the pressure of needing to get the best of things,I look at what I have now and think,this will do until we can SAVE up the money to get something else. We are now looking at buying used over buyng new. Good quality used furniture and things like that can last a very long time and cost much less than buying new. Our vehicles we are aiming to save for future cars not going out and getting into debt for one.
We are wiser and more equipt that before and we have the Lord to thank for teaching us the lessons that we would have never learned had my husband not been laid off. Sometimes we just don't understand the Lords plan for our lives but once he lays it out for you and your start taking the faith walk toward him he will bless your life like you would never be able to imagine. Give to God and he will give to you!
Happy Homemaking
No comments:
Post a Comment