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I’ve never thought of myself as rich.
My brother and I grew up middle class, my family now is middle class, and I fully expect to continue being middle class for the foreseeable future. Growing up in my parents house there was always food on the table, a roof over our heads and toys under the Christmas tree. Little did I realize we lived like kings in comparison to millions of people around the world. I’ve done nothing to deserve these blessing. I was simply born in America. And I think we definitely take that fact for granted.
One of the reasons Leanne & I are so motivated to work diligently towards becoming debt free is that our family wants to give. Unfortunately, up to this point I haven’t made the wisest financial choices (anyone else lease a car right out of college?) and have allowed my greedy, consumer mentality to suck me into debt (credit cards? check). I’ve written before that when we started Financial Peace University we were asked this question:
What would you do if you were debt free?
In thinking about God’s plan for my life, how much I’ve taken for granted, and the passion I have for learning and people the answer to that question would be:
Donate time and money to the poor, hurting, homeless, etc
Now, truthfully we’re a few years away from being debt free (really don’t want to calculate it actually), but that doesn’t give me the excuse to postpone ministering to others in the meantime. One of the things I love about our church is that they aren’t about reinventing the wheel. New Life has partnered with established food banks, charities and non-profits in our community to “funnel human and financial resources” in an efficient manner to provide the biggest impact. Here are a few:
This holiday season I encourage you and your family to find an opportunity to serve in your community. It’s easy to write a check (or maybe it’s not), but I challenge you to instead give of your most precious resource, your time. It will help give you (and your kids) a reality check about what is really important. I know I definitely need the reminder.
Please share a link to your favorite non-profit, charity or ministry.
A book that really goes along with this is the Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. He is the current president of World Vision. Our church is doing the book as a study in small groups. It doesn’t matter how small you start with. If it is only 5 dollars or giving away an old winter coat that is never worn. It is helping someone out that didn’t have that 5 dollars or a coat to keep them warm before. Powerful book that could be a further explanation of how to live out baby step 7 in Dave’s program! Never give up the battle of climbing out of debt. The view from the top will be worth the cry of freedom!
Financial Peace University was the best thing that ever happened to my wife and I. We paid off our credit card and all of our outstanding bills. While we are not completely debt free, I believe that if we were bogged down with debt, we would not have been prepared for the birth of our little boy.