First I want to talk to you about the many changes in our household in the past 24 hours. It all started yesterday when I was on the phone with my sweet hubby. Here's our conversation...We were just chatting and checking on each other and I said "So why are at home and not at work?" he said "I'm doing some research." I said "research? What are you researching?" he said "I don't really want to tell you right now because you'll get mad." I said "No I won't!" We went back and forth for a little while with that argument and he finally told me..."I'm looking at cars, I want to trade in my car." I said "Wait, what? You're precious car that you've only had 7 months? You want to trade it in?" he said "yes it would be the best financial decision for us right now." so I said "Okay, whatever you think will be best (with a little hesitation in my voice). And he said "See I told you that you would be upset." So I explained I wasn't upset just a little nervous about getting a used car. I was comfortable with knowing we had two brand new good running cars and just didn't want to deal with maybe buying a piece of junk that in a couple months we would have issues with. So I said "Go ahead look around and see what you can find." And he did, haha! By the end of the day his 2012 Veloster was traded in for a 2004 Honda Civic. He said the last 4 months he has felt bad for the mistake he made 7 months ago and that was purchasing 2 brand new cars. See when he deployed in 2010 we had a plan for when he got home. Our plan including getting a new doggy, or a "man dog" and trading in my Toyota Camery for a bigger vehicle to travel with 3 animals and just get a fresh start with a new car. We were in good financial standing while he was gone. Who isn't when they're on a deployment? So we knew we could handle a car payment and dog and be plenty comfy money wise. Well back to 7 months ago we got our new doggie Hogan, he's precious and we also got TWO new cars not ONE, TWO!! I know, I know lots to swallow. Our two cars we traded had good trade in value so we really got a steal. We punched numbers and figured up that we could afford it all so we went with it....(time out, be back to this in a few)
I want to share a little of where I was on my religious walk seven months ago. I was learning what it was to be a submissive wife, the wife God calls us to be, a Proverbs 31 women. In other words I was learning what it meant to give your husband the lead in making decisions for us and trusting what he decided was the best. Seven months ago I was introduced to this little E-Book "The Proverbs 31 Women One Virtue at a Time" by one of my favorite bloggers Courtney from Women Living Well. I try my hardest to live by Proverbs 31:10-31. I try to take care of every need in our home and respect and love my husband with everything in me in hopes that I will receive the love and respect I deserve. I strive to live my life in this way for God, my husband, myself and one day our children! Trust me I am guilty of not respecting my husband but I strive to correct myself when I don't. My mouth gets me in trouble A LOT (I tend to put some attitude behind what i'm saying) and I quickly realize what I've said or how I've said something. I apologize and i'm forgiven. I move on and try not to act disrespectful towards my husband again. The comforting thing is that when I do slip up I know my husband loves me and will forgive me and same goes for him!
Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise
at the city gate. - Proverbs 31:31
(time in)...It was an expensive lesson to learn and i'm sure we will make many more mistakes and learn from them much later but the point is that my husband was bold enough to step up and fix it. In a way buying the TWO cars was a "we" decision. Jeremy listens to how I feel about things when making big decisions but the final decision is up to him. I think this taught him to think a lot more when making big decisions like this. I love that he is thinking and not just trying to live pay day to pay day. After talking yesterday evening we decided to get ride of our cable also. We hardly watch ALL the channels we have. When we do watch TV it's NBC, CBS and ABC and we can get an antenna for those channels. I will miss DVR though, but I can live without it! So we're on a money saving spree and we LOVE it! I'm glad my hubby doesn't have a weight on his shoulders any more and feels stress free! I'm so proud of him!
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. - Luke 12:48
Material things will take over our values and we tend to think we have been blessed by our own efforts and we don't need God. Our prayer life and spiritual life suffers when we depend too much of materialistic "things." Every single blessing comes from God not ourselves. He deserves all the credit! In the busy society we live in it's so easy to give our loved ones "things" instead of our time, love, and attention. Material things may even take place over children, marriage, love and your home life.
If something takes too much effort to maintain or cost too much money, get rid of it! We need to keep our priorities in the right place. We can't take anything in this world with us when we leave!
drove that didn't have transportation.
2. God won’t ask the square footage of our house. He’ll ask how many we
welcomed into our home.
3. God won’t ask about the clothes we had in your closet. He’ll ask how
many we helped to clothe.
4. God won’t ask what our highest salary was. He’ll ask if we compromised
our character to obtain it.
5. God won’t ask what our job title was. He’ll ask if we performed our job
to the best of your ability.
6. God won’t ask in what neighborhood we lived. He’ll ask how we treated
our neighbors.
God has a future for us and we can use it in many different ways!
I shared this in hopes that you will walk away thinking about some things you could live without. Things that get in the way of your walk with the Lord, things you depend on too much.
Have a blessed day!
Martha
