“Look kids there’s the ocean.” While it was not their first
time to see the ocean, it was the first time to see it in Florida.
“Look kids there’s the ship!” It was magnificent and
enormous. The Disney cruise ship was ready to set sail and we were going to be
on it.
Three years of hard work, perseverance and obedience had
brought us to this place. I don’t know who was more excited – the grown-ups or
the kids. As we stood on the escalator and it carried us to the second floor of
the Disney terminal, the sound of Disney songs filled the air and at the other end
of the terminal was a giant set of Mickey Mouse ears a top the tunnel that
would usher us onto the ship. I was overwhelmed with emotion. We were debt free
and the reality of a dream come true was sinking in for the first time. It was no coincidence that we were boarding the Disney Dream ship.
So let’s rewind 3 years and remember where this voyage (pun
intended) began. I prayed one morning asking God to do a work in our finances.
Like most people in America, we were living outside of our means. We didn’t
make big frivolous purchases or charge expensive vacations, but we did use
credit cards to make “well thought out” decisions and to fill the gap at the
end of some months when the bank account ran out too soon. Frugality was my
friend and we deliberately made decisions to keep expenses under control. We
did NOT, however, create a monthly or annual budget and attempt to actually
follow it. It was more like give a little, save a little and spend the rest as
it comes in.
The same day I prayed that prayer one of Tyrone’s colleagues
walked into his office with a book – “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey.
It was the answer to my prayer. Tyrone read the entire book that weekend (and
has read it several more times since) and we set forth a draft of a monthly
budget. It took a few weeks, but on February 1, 2014 we set the plan into
motion. We sat down with scissors and our credit cards and cut them all up. We
included our children so they could be a part the process too. We set up our
$1000 mini emergency fund and immediately an “emergency” happened. Our van
broke down and the next month our washing machine needed a repair. I wrote
those checks stress free for the first time ever because we had a plan – we were
planning ahead so things that were once emergencies became little bumps in the
road.
In January 2015 we launched a support raising campaign so
that our oldest 2 kids and I could take a mission trip to Africa. Another dream
come true for me! I knew without our money makeover; I never would have had the
courage to say yes to the trip. After God completely overwhelmed us with the
generosity of all of our donors, we decided we needed to up our giving. We went
from giving our basic 10% tithe each month to giving 12% to our local church
and another 3% to short term and long term missions. God continues to bless our
generosity today as he surprises us all the time with little extras and the filling
of gaps. And now that we are debt free (except for our mortgage) we have to
continue to work the plan, follow our monthly budget, and honor God with all
the resources he has given us.
As challenging as it was to become debt free, I believe the
true challenge is just beginning. We have big goals – God sized goals. We need
to stock a full emergency fund and start saving for college for 4 kids. We need
to grow our retirement fund now that the debt is gone. I have resigned from my
part time job and will be returning to college this fall to pursue a master’s
degree. We are trusting that if this is God’s plan, he will provide the
financial resources to make it happen with no debt. This is where faith and
reality intersect. Do we believe God will continue to provide as he has done
for the last 3 years? Do we believe that he will provide opportunities for fun
vacations and little weekend get-ways so we can refresh and build family memories?
And even harder, do we trust him with our hearts even if we never set foot on
another Disney cruise ship or travels to Africa again?
The key to the whole thing has been obedience. 1 John 5:3-4 NLT
says, “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his
commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this
victory through our faith.” We have freedom through our obedience and
faith. We understand more now that his commands are for our good. It isn’t
always easy, but the burden is light, especially compared to the burden of debt
and disorganized finances. We are overcoming the world by making the deliberate
choice to surrender our money to God because it all comes from him anyway. Now
as Dave Ramsey says, “we can live like no one else so that we can live and give
like no one else.”
