brad – since the beginning of the year we have been on a pretty good budget. it has transformed our lives. we dont use credit, so everything is paid for in cash. so…if we dont have it, we dont get it. that alone helps with compulsive buying. its tight. but we can never say that God has not provided for us, for our needs.

since our budget began, we found that we could in fact give to compassion. we sponsor a sweet little boy with eyes that can melt the hardest of hearts.

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though not fun, i am thankful for difficult times that teach us valuable lessons like these. i fully anticipate having to cut our spending even more – - to a standard that may no longer be “comfortable” (laughable, huh? we americans are so spoiled). but the beauty of living for god is the supernatural peace and trust in his provision that comes in the midst of it all. we still tithe and will continue to do so and we will be as generous as we can beyond the tithe. because god has proved himself faithful time and again. you just can’t out give god. btw, you have to budget your generosity – can’t just write a check for $50 when your bank account is at $10 and expect god to just zap it in there. um, it doesn’t work that way. i know… that was a little of a tangent. but that little piece of information seems to be news to more than a few people. generosity is not supernatural – it’s very calculated.

the coming months will be hard no doubt, but i look forward to the growth that always comes from being stretched beyond our perceived limitations. someday my husband will have a new and improved job and we will have a new and improved standard for money management which will allow us to be more generous than we ever felt we could be before.

the voluntary pay cut thing is brilliant. wish we had tried it before it all became so involuntary.

wow, i obviously haven’t blogged in a bit. sorry, that was a kinda long. but great post, brad. thanks!

p.s. dave ramsey is the deal. and there are few things more life changing than breaking free from debt. we’ve done it twice now. anyone here struggling with it… HANG IN THERE AND STICK TO IT and keep tithing. it will be SO worth it.

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Just a quick message to tell you that i love your blog. awesome stuff.

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We need and should volunteer at those type of organizations serving the needy in our own country. But to compare the “poverty” we have here in the United States to what children growing up in Rwanda or Hati experience every day…well, there is no comparison. There are different levels of poverty in the world and the poorest of our poor are rich in comparison to many around the world.

That being said, I strongly encourage people to give generously to organizations that are working to eradicate poverty wherever it exists – in our own city or around the world. We should be volunteering at and donating to homeless shelters in our community. Just remember, there are over 6,000 people (mostly children) who die every day from a lack of clean water and over 5,400 who die every day from preventable diseases like Tuberculosis (more facts here).

That’s something I just can’t live with.

Nuff said.

Mike Ellis, Church For Men Floridas last blog post..Why I will never be able to call myself a Christian

Too bad we can’t get our government to start adopting some of these common sense principles.

It’s not really anything new, but you put it in a simple concise way – I’ve already forwarded your post to a few friends

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