Ross received a raise for the 2012-2013 school year. His school district doesn't give performance raises, but instead he receives increases in salary based on what "step" he is on in his teaching career. I believe it factors in years of service, degrees earned, and credits taken. His raise has him making $4000 more than he was last year--that's significant and certainly timely for us. Allow me to explain.
In my book Personal Finances Personal Freedom, I wrote about how every month when we sit down to plan our finances for the next month, we always take into consideration the "God Factor" (I'll use GF for short). The GF is realizing that although on the spreadsheet may things look tight, we cannot forget about what miracle God is going to work in order to allow us to end the month in the black. When we sit down to pray for our finances for the upcoming month, we are expecting God to provide for what He wants us to do with His money. Time and time again, money will come in from unexpected resources, expenses that we thought we would have were not needed after all, and the list goes on. So we know that it is not us doing the providing, it is Him and always has been.
We are currently looking into making some changes with our insurance that will increase our monthly spending budget. So this raise comes right on time and helps us to see that making the insurance change is what God wants us to do--because He provided the money to do it!
So I celebrate not only the raise, but also the contentment that God has given us with the money that we have been living on these past few years. Ten years ago, I couldn't say that we were content with the money that we had. And at that time we were both employed. Our focus was on looking like everybody else--wearing their clothes, driving their cars, and living in their houses. Now we realize that doing those things is a surefire recipe for being disappointed and broke! We now have one income, less money, and loads more peace. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6:6,
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
I am thankful to God for what we have gained in the wait.
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