Delay Start

On my oven I have a 'Delay Start' button.




Say I'm out of the house for the day and want the oven heated up to cook dinner upon my return.  All I have to do is push the delay start button and the oven allows me to program the time that I want to begin  preheating up to the temperature at which I want to cook.  Voila!  I come home to an oven that is ready to cook food.

Lately it has been brought to my attention that I have a delay start mentality.  Twice in the last week I've caught myself knowing the good that I ought to do and delaying rather than doing it right away.  It has been driving me crazy!  It's like my brain is going, "Wait for it, wait for it..........now wait for it some more..."

My prayer is to break free of whatever fear I have and just do trusting God for the results.  May I already be fired up and ready to go whenever He's ready for me to get cooking!

Crushed

This is the kind of prepackaged food that I love to find at grocery stores...

You've likely noticed that the boxes are crushed.  They look tampered with.  Undesirable.  Maybe almost like garbage.  So why in the world do I love to find boxes like these?

Well, what you may not be able to see is the price tag labels on the boxes.  The 12-pack boxes of Wheat Thins are reduced to $0.75 and the Skillet Basics dinners are reduced to $0.35.  Hello!  At those prices (less than half of what I'd normally pay) these products are valuable to me.  Yes, the boxes look contorted but the contents are still worth something.

In the same way, when we get crushed by life's circumstances it makes us more valuable to the kingdom. Why?  Because we've been through some stuff, survived it, and can now help someone else get through that same stuff and survive.  2 Corinthians 4:8 says

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

The next time you face a trial that presses you on every side, remember that God is allowing you to be crushed in order to craft you for His purposes.

Poor Chips

The other day I was asking my 12-year old son what items he would like for me to pick up at the grocery store for his school lunches.  He asked if I would get some snacks like the ones I normally get.  They come in individualized bags but are sold separately instead of in a multi-pack.  I find them at the grocery outlets I shop at and they are anywhere from 4 for $1 to 8 for $1.  The price is on a sticker attached to each bag.

"Already got them on my list," I told him.

Then he said, "Yeah, the kids call them 'poor chips'."

"Why do they call 'em 'poor chips'?" I asked trying to get a sense of whether this was bothersome to him or not (which is tough to do with his personality).

"I don't know."  His typical answer.

"Wait, are these the same kids who trade food with you at the lunch table?"  I countered.

"Yeah.  They'll be like, 'I'll give you my drink for your poor chips'."

Just then my 13-year old pipes up.  "Yeah, my friends like the snacks that I bring for lunch, too.  They always trade me for their school lunch stuff."

When I was growing up 25 cent chips (or 13 cent chips for that matter) would not have been cool.  But in the same middle school cafeteria that I sat in over 25 years ago what's cool has changed.  Imagine that!

My Many Miracles

I haven't talked in a while about my mortgage.  After all, the original aim of this blog was to show anyone who may read it the miracle I am trusting God to do--paying off our mortgage in five years.  We are currently in year two.  September of 2014 will be three years.  The mortgage balance is at $91,332.42 and I am still trusting God.

The reason that I can post about so many things aside from my mortgage is because God is so good!  He constantly blesses me, teaches me, and rebukes me as a good Father should.  If I were to look only at what I don't see happening in my mortgage balance, I would be missing all that I do see happening around me on a daily basis.  My neighbor's two-year prayer answered.  My seven-year old's sorrow in lying.  Finding freedom from fear.  A warmth inside of me that cannot be taken on a 20 degree day.

I look forward to seeing how and when God will pay off my mortgage, there's no doubt about that.  But in the meantime I am content in seeing the daily miracles that remind me of His faithfulness.

Healthy Wealthy and Wise Interview

Ross and I were interviewed last month on the internet radio program "Healthy Wealthy and Wise".  The show shares with listeners how to be physically, financially, and spiritually fit.

The segment that we participated in dealt with the financial realm of health (surprise, surprise :-)  We share about why we made the decision to get out of debt and the emotional issues that occurred along with that decision.  May the Lord use our words to grow His Kingdom.

Healthy Wealthy and Wise (finances)

Lost and Found

Over the Thanksgiving break we went to my in-laws home to celebrate the holiday with family.  It is always an enjoyable occasion as they truly sacrifice their time and their home to our family so that we can have some R&R.

In spite of their hospitality and my excitement about going, I always tend to leave for the trip holding my breath.  Leaving our normal family routine of chores, little to no t.v. viewing, and regular bedtimes can cause all of us to become a little selfish.  I'd like to think that it's just the kids fighting over the remote or absentmindedly leaving dishes lying around.  But Ross and I can overindulge in laziness just as easily as the kids.  I feel like we become lost...looking for what we can get rather than looking for what we can give.

Our family rotates holidays between two sets of grandparents which means we will not be with my in-laws for Christmas.  Therefore, we have a tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts during our Thanksgiving time with them.  This year, we each received $100 from them to spend as we wanted--a huge blessing.

We went shopping on Friday.  I took Morgan to look at some clothes in one of the department stores and Ross took the boys to go and look at some items in another department store.  We met back about an hour and a half later.  Looking at Ross I could tell that he was upset.  Morgan and I were late in arriving, but his face conveyed that this was not the entire reason he was angry.  My eyes scanned the rest of the party for clues as to what had happened.  Hunter had a shopping bag and seemed fine.  Then I looked down to Blaise whose face was downcast.  Instantly I knew what had happened, but asked the question anyway.

"Why does everyone seem so down?"

"Because someone lost his money," my husband retorted.

Right on cue Blaise came over to me and buried his head in my stomach.  'Oh, no,' I thought.  'How do we handle this?'

We let Morgan and Hunter go off by themselves to look around the mall while we stayed with Blaise.  Ross recounted to me what had happened, the places they had already searched, and the frustration he was understandably feeling.  Blaise is a kid who does whatever he does with gusto.  Somehow in the midst of him doing something his money got lost.  An accident, yes, but unfortunately one that came at a big price!  After talking about it, we decided that we would handle the situation this way:  anyone in the family who wanted to could give Blaise $20 of their money.  But only if they wanted to do so.  Ross joked with me and asked, "What if he only gets $20?"  "From who?  You?" I joked back.

After finishing up at the mall, we walked out to the van, got in, and Ross shared with the kids what we had decided.  Immediately, both Morgan and Hunter, piped up and said "Okay" and passed their money forward.  Immediately.  Not begrudgingly, not with an attitude, not with a comment or question.  Almost instinctively.  I cannot express how proud I was in that moment to be the mom of my kids.

Right then and there my heart rested in knowing that what I thought was lost had been found.

Car Talk

Our car is getting older.  It is a 2001 model.  Needless to say I've been thinking about the next vehicle that we might purchase and exactly how we would purchase that vehicle.

We have savings enough to cover expenses for at least three months if Ross were to lose his job.  We are consumer debt-free and don't want to go back into debt to pay for a new car.  So in October we decided to create an additional savings account for a vehicle.

So far there is just about $100 in the fund.  It seemed almost embarrassing at first to have an account for a car with so little money in it.  But God reminded me that no money will be saved if I do not open an account in the first place.  So I did my job of opening it and I'll let God do his job of filling it up.

Today I went into the bank and saw the guy behind the counter working that had waited on me the last time I made my deposit into our "car fund", which is how it's labeled.  I secretly hoped that he wouldn't be the one to wait on me again as I made my meager deposit of $20 into the account.  But wouldn't you know it, "I can help the next person in line," he calls to me.

"I'd like to make some deposits," I say as confidently as possible.  I had some other money to put back into the bank as well.  I plug in the numbers for my account as his eyes scanned the screen.

"Ah, yes, the car account, I remember," he said knowingly.

"Yep, we're saving up for our next car."

"You know we can help you reach that goal in less than 24 hours.  Have you seen our interest rates lately?"

"No I haven't," I answer politely.

"2.99% for any loans up to 3 years."

"We don't want a loan.  We want to buy a car with cash," I answer with a smile.

He nods and doesn't press the issue.  Surely he saw what I did.  Only $100 in the bank...But isn't it just like God to bring about such a conversation with this particular teller so that He can be glorified in seeing what only God can do.