One thing right and everything else seemed to go wrong…

When we decided to begin on this “get out of debt” mission, we did one thing right, we prayed for Gods guidance.  Finally, after trying to do it on our own, very unsuccessfully, for years, it was time to hand over the reigns to the true Master In Control.  Not only did that reduce a whole bunch of stress, but He also opened many doors, and closed some as well.

One of the first things we learned is the devil didn’t like our decision to get out of debt, and hand it over to God.  Remember, he likes slaves, so when he realized we were letting go, he had a plan himself.  Lets begin with cars breaking down, expenses going up, and compensation change at my husbands work (not the “add to our bank account” way either).  It seemed that every step forward was met with 10 steps back.  I couldn’t figure out why?  Then I read Dave Ransey's book, Total Money Makeover (which I totally recommend), where Dave pointed out a very obvious step we were missing (ok maybe smacked me upside the head with it).  When you are trying to get out of debt, don’t use the credit cards anymore…. hmm great point, but when you have no money, things are breaking down, what do you do?  1st thing is a $1,000 emergency fund.  (I am sure ya’ll already know this) When I first read that I was like “shouldn’t that money go to pay down debt?”.  Wrong!  If something happens to a vehicle, kids needs to go to the doctor, the fridge breaks, I was in the habit of putting money back on a credit card.  With an emergency fund, we are “borrowing” from ourselves, no interest, and not going further backwards.  We just make sure it is a “have to have” before we borrow from it  (oops our TV died, doesn’t cut it).  It seemed like we were standing still for a bit, while we put the money we “borrowed” back, but at least we weren’t going backwards any longer.  But what a security blanket (me, as a woman needs that).    So all the Glory goes to God for His true compassion and guidance, especially when I asked!

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