Financial Peace Update

It's been a good 6 months since we completed the Financial Peace University class we took in the spring at church. David began a 3 week series this past Sunday about the economy, and it was such a great reminder of many of the principles we learned in FPU. The main point of the sermon was that there is God and there is money- one you will trust and the other you will use. Having been married in college, and then going through 4 years of medical school on a low, hourly wage income (teaching jobs were lacking to say the least the year I graduated) for only 3 out of the 4 years with a baby in the mix, we really can say there is no explanation for how we survived that time financially except by the grace of God. We learned very quickly to trust that God would provide, and every time he did. We learned to expect and plan for a car breakdown right around the time our tax refund check would come. :) We were also very blessed with friends and family who understood our needs and took watch over us during that time and we are forever grateful for that.

When we began residency a little over 2 years ago, it was our first time in 5 years of marriage that we had a regular, salaried income and could begin really budgeting. I wish we had that class available to us a few years ago because I know we would have made different choices along the way in regards to home buying, insurance, and such with the knowledge we have now. But, I am confident that God brought that class into our life at the perfect time. We still live on a tight, strict budget, but with that brings freedom. We can decide how each dollar is spent with what we have now. We are in control of our money rather than it being in control of us. As a result of the FPU class we have made changes, including elminiating credit cards and cell phones, starting a debt snowball which gives us a plan for our massive school loans, making wiser choices about what to spend our money on (or what not to spend it on), increasing our giving to others, and we are less than one full payment away from our last car payment, 9 months ahead of schedule! In a couple of years our financial situation is going to drastically change again, and we will have to redesign our plan...but one thing I never want to lose sight of (no matter how much or how little we have) is those years we were learning to fully rely on God to meet our needs.

I have also been continually reminded of how much we need to be aware of the seriousness of poverty in the world around us, because even at our poorest we were still in the top 1% of the world's wealthiest. My trip to the Gambia in 2002 was perhaps the most impacting reminder I had. We saw the slums in Banjul from the balcony of our hotel. We traveled into the villages around Ndugu Kebbe where people lived in dirt and straw huts and ate peanuts and rice. We saw hungry children, sick people, and dying babies at the clinic. In the Daniel study I am doing at church, Beth Moore made a statement that reminded me we should never lose touch with the poor because once that happens we are fully immersed in the "Babylonian" culture that bombards us here in America. Since I was in college, I have wanted to sponsor children in need overseas. So Brad and I decided to begin the sponsership program through Compassion International. We chose a little boy in Guatemala who was born the same year as Riley and looks very undernourished. I get so excited when I think about what our $32 a month is going to do for that child and his family. It is going to rock his world. :) I also get excited to think about the impact it will have on our kids as we reach out over an ocean to bring a child their age (and hopefully more children in the future) food and clothing and education.

We do still have stressful moments when it comes to money, whether it's all the medical expenses we've had lately or uncertain gas prices. Learning to trust is a continual process and there are always going to be surprises in life. But I am confident that the money will be there every month, not because I trust in money, but because my trust is in God.