I remember when I was younger, the church we attend ended every service singing, "I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God......" I always thought it was an interesting song and specifically meant within my church. As I have grown, I have found that their are a lot of people in the family of God. I meet new people everyday and find a close knit like I have known them all my life.
In todays world, so many people are cutting others out of their life( ie. ex-spouse, bad friend, old co-worker) for whatever reason. I thought I would share a story that I was told in youth group a long time ago. There once was a new Christian and wanting to be a good Christain, he decided to stop associating with anyone that did not believe in God. He felt very good about his decision until he found that a few of his "Christian" friends were not acting very "Christian" like so he decided to eliminate anyone who did not act like a "Christian." Then one day he got in a heated discussion with one of his approved friends and found that they did not see eye to eye on a passage in the word of God so he redrew his friendship circle to only include those who shared the same biblical view points as him. He was very happy, but then he heard some gossip at church about someone within his circle befriending someone outside of his circle so he once again redrew his line to only include his immediate family, born and raised to believe like him. Time went by and he realized that they were all heathens and sinners as well, so he eliminated them form his circle one by one until he was the only one left in his circle. Then one day a stranger came by seeking friendship from him. He quickly explained all the qualifications for friendship. The stranger gave him a sympathetic look and said, "you have failed your own friendship test and yet I loved you so much I gave you my life." At that moment he realized that Jesus loves us inspite of ourselves. He doesn't put conditions on His love for us and that putting conditions on his friendships had only left him lonely.
We may not see eye to eye. We may not worship the same way. We may not sing the same songs, but all I need to know is that your Father in Heaven loves you to know that I love you too.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Been a While
Haven't been on here in a while. I have been very busy. Amazing that we moved to where no one lived only to find that we are closer to where we needed to be. God is good. Anyways, my doctor back home started blogging and got me to thinking about my blog and that led to this moment so let me fill you in on a few details. I am on the home stretch to being debt free. I say that a little nervously, because I fear there is a debt collecter I've missed right around the corner waiting to pounce when I least expect it. lol We were so in debt and out of touch with our finances. I am amazed how we got this far. We had two incomes, were spoiled and still wanting more.
So, I took the balance of all the bills we owed and put them on a spread sheet seperated in to three sections: reoccuring necessities (utilities, rent, etc.), medical debt and other debt (IRS, Credit cards, etc.) I don't have much of a reason for why I did it this way, but it worked for me. Then I devised two notebooks: one had my reoccuring necessities in it and the other had my debt reduction plan in it. I took the reoccuring notebook and put dividers in for each debt: water, gas, electric, rent, phone, etc. I then printed off a monthly calender to record due dates and pay days. Now when a bill comes in, I record the due date and find the previous pay day to take it out of. I three hole punch the bill and put it in the correct tab. When payday comes I pay what is on my list for that payday and mark the appropriate bill with paid, the date, and confirmation number or check number. It feels good not to be behind on my bills! The best part was when my husband realized that all these bills are at his fingertips in this handy dandy binder; filed and recorded. I just empty it out once a year when we do taxes.
For the debt reduction notebook I organized the bills from least to greatest and figured up how much I could afford to put toward the debt each pay period (I recorded that in the other notebook as Debt Reduction $250 so that I deducted it from each paycheck). Then I divided my Debt Reduction funds by how many bills I had. I sent each one some money. The little ones fell off pretty fast and I was so busy celebrating the little ones that I didn't even notice that the little I sent to the big ones was doing it's job of pulling down those totals too. I have now payed off 26 bills. YEAH ME! I still have some to go, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And all this on half the paycheck!
Now, we have opened a savings account that is in another bank so that we aren't tempted to get to it and we put money automatically into it each payday. We don't even see it, which is best for me, because I love retail therapy. Did I mention that we have no car payments now and own one more car than we need in case of emergencies? Credit cards are paid off and chopped up. Our biggest hurdles have been the IRS. We got audited last year and they went back to 2006. We ended up owing like $14,000. It was a nightmare. We are down to $4,000 and our tax refund this year of $3,800 will cover most of that nicely. Last week, however, we got a letter from the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Yeah, apparently we had taxes from 1996 that didn't get paid. Here we go again......
Well, I hope to be more fervent about this blog thing. I really have a lot to tell you about why God put us in "No Man's Land." He knows what He is doing. Talk soon.
So, I took the balance of all the bills we owed and put them on a spread sheet seperated in to three sections: reoccuring necessities (utilities, rent, etc.), medical debt and other debt (IRS, Credit cards, etc.) I don't have much of a reason for why I did it this way, but it worked for me. Then I devised two notebooks: one had my reoccuring necessities in it and the other had my debt reduction plan in it. I took the reoccuring notebook and put dividers in for each debt: water, gas, electric, rent, phone, etc. I then printed off a monthly calender to record due dates and pay days. Now when a bill comes in, I record the due date and find the previous pay day to take it out of. I three hole punch the bill and put it in the correct tab. When payday comes I pay what is on my list for that payday and mark the appropriate bill with paid, the date, and confirmation number or check number. It feels good not to be behind on my bills! The best part was when my husband realized that all these bills are at his fingertips in this handy dandy binder; filed and recorded. I just empty it out once a year when we do taxes.
For the debt reduction notebook I organized the bills from least to greatest and figured up how much I could afford to put toward the debt each pay period (I recorded that in the other notebook as Debt Reduction $250 so that I deducted it from each paycheck). Then I divided my Debt Reduction funds by how many bills I had. I sent each one some money. The little ones fell off pretty fast and I was so busy celebrating the little ones that I didn't even notice that the little I sent to the big ones was doing it's job of pulling down those totals too. I have now payed off 26 bills. YEAH ME! I still have some to go, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. And all this on half the paycheck!
Now, we have opened a savings account that is in another bank so that we aren't tempted to get to it and we put money automatically into it each payday. We don't even see it, which is best for me, because I love retail therapy. Did I mention that we have no car payments now and own one more car than we need in case of emergencies? Credit cards are paid off and chopped up. Our biggest hurdles have been the IRS. We got audited last year and they went back to 2006. We ended up owing like $14,000. It was a nightmare. We are down to $4,000 and our tax refund this year of $3,800 will cover most of that nicely. Last week, however, we got a letter from the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Yeah, apparently we had taxes from 1996 that didn't get paid. Here we go again......
Well, I hope to be more fervent about this blog thing. I really have a lot to tell you about why God put us in "No Man's Land." He knows what He is doing. Talk soon.
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