i just read a book called Lord, Change My Attitude: Before it's Too Late by James MacDonald. our church's women's Bible study read it. By it, God lit corners of my life that were dim and taught me new ways of seeing ie lit life; by it, God also taught me discernment by MacDonald's extrapolative statements ie discernment.
the chapters partner in twos, beginning with an attitude that needs replacing then followed by an attitude with which to replace the former. one chapter, about love replacing criticism, accomplished both of the results mentioned before.
example of lit life
by this chapter, God gave me clarity about three relationships, each stained by my error and evil of failing to love God-like. my specific wrongs were jealousy and not hoping all things (because love hopes all things and covers over a multitude of sins). an example of the latter, not hoping all things, is assuming motives or attitudes behind action, assuming someone meant ill by an action without knowing. God spurred me to go to my sisters to ask for forgiveness. i'm thankful that each forgave me!
example of discernment
by this same chapter (amongst lots of other examples), God moved me to a place of wariness because the author kept seeming to state that because all nouns, verbs and all else done apart from love are worthless, we shouldn't use nouns, verbs or all else unless love partners with them.
here is a parallel example:
i know i should desire to pray when i pray, but i don't, therefore i won't pray until i desire it.
or
i know i should desire to care for my crying baby when i care, but i don't, therefore i won't care for him/her until i desire it.
this falls apart (clearly in the latter example), practically, because if we only do things when we "feel" it, a lot wouldn't get done!, and Biblically, often in doing what we're commanded, God provides feeling, plus commitment isn't just doing when feeling.
for example, the Psalmist questions himself about his downcast soul, telling himself that he will again rejoice in God. this is one exemplification of working through our lack of feeling or feeling the opposite of what we should.
my argument - i think grounded by the Bible - is that it is best to do all by love, but, if love is not there, it is still better to do, without love, than not to do, though we should ask God for love.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
my joy in budgeting is complete
jon and i are learning the freedom of God with money.
money used to cause me a lot of stress and tightened-insides-ism (or anxiety).
through different means, God encouraged us to control and steward the money given us instead of the money controlling us. paul, in the Bible, often prefaces or concludes truth-statements with "make my joy complete," connecting the completion or fulfillment or fullness of his joy with sharing whatever truth with others. my mom told me last weekend that i always talk about our budget, budget-this and budget-that. i responded that this is a big, hopefully, life-long tip and help God taught and is teaching us.
our current budget method includes
deciding where we spend money ex groceries, gas, haircuts
alotting money monthly or bi weekly to each category based on income making sure to prioritize alottments ie giving then mortgage/rent then utilities then insurance, etc. ex groceries 10, gas 5, haircuts 2.5
creating a binder with a page per category, considering each category it's own account ex of a page
page for groceries (or g-1 indicating page 1 of groceries)
date name of place where groceries were purchased amount
basically, our pages look like a checkbook with the difference of each category having its own "checkbook" and running balance. this is helpful because when we had a budget but didn't separate our categories, we'd look at our balance online and think we had a lot of money in our account, but, really, that excess was excess in a particular category such as insurance since we only pay that twice a year. this method helps us to immediately see what's left for a particular category. we've determined to work with inputting our receipts once a week. this helps us to stay aware.
some helpful thoughts
keep your receipts it was hard for jon and i to remember to keep receipts, especially ones for small amounts. for items paid for in cash, we each have a small notebook that we keep in our cars or at work in which we'll record amounts. our system at home is to have a small cardboard box in which we keep past receipts that we've already recorded and a little bag in which we keep receipts we haven't yet recorded.
about transfering money you can transfer money! this is freeing. for example, we allow a certain amount of money for our two puppies per month, but this month they're getting neutered and spaid, which will cost more than our alottment, but we have extra money in our gas and cell phone categories, so we're transferring our needed amount. in our binder, on our dog page, we'll write under "description/name of place," "transferred from gas/cell," and on our gas/cell pages, we'll write under "description/name of place," "transferred to dog."
breathing room give yourself room to breathe. don't budget out to the penny unless it's a fixed amount like mortgage. give yourself maybe 15 extra dollars per category or whatever you feel would help your budget to breathe.
debt prioritize paying off debt. talk about freedom! God provided for us to pay off our car and credit card debt through bonuses and our lovely stimulus from our home purchase, (though consider federal and state returns or christmas/birthday money,) and it freed multiple hundreds of dollars per month. with our school debt, we are paying off mine at 1.75 times the required amount; at this rate, we should pay mine off in less than 5 years, after which we'll turn the amount we're paying toward mine toward jon's on top of the required amount, which should allow us to pay off all our school debt in a total of less than 10 years, which was the original time frame on just my debt! sure, there will be less money to work with today, but you'll know freedom from debt sooner.
if there are more questions, please ask! sharing this makes my joy complete!
money used to cause me a lot of stress and tightened-insides-ism (or anxiety).
through different means, God encouraged us to control and steward the money given us instead of the money controlling us. paul, in the Bible, often prefaces or concludes truth-statements with "make my joy complete," connecting the completion or fulfillment or fullness of his joy with sharing whatever truth with others. my mom told me last weekend that i always talk about our budget, budget-this and budget-that. i responded that this is a big, hopefully, life-long tip and help God taught and is teaching us.
our current budget method includes
deciding where we spend money ex groceries, gas, haircuts
alotting money monthly or bi weekly to each category based on income making sure to prioritize alottments ie giving then mortgage/rent then utilities then insurance, etc. ex groceries 10, gas 5, haircuts 2.5
creating a binder with a page per category, considering each category it's own account ex of a page
page for groceries (or g-1 indicating page 1 of groceries)
date name of place where groceries were purchased amount
basically, our pages look like a checkbook with the difference of each category having its own "checkbook" and running balance. this is helpful because when we had a budget but didn't separate our categories, we'd look at our balance online and think we had a lot of money in our account, but, really, that excess was excess in a particular category such as insurance since we only pay that twice a year. this method helps us to immediately see what's left for a particular category. we've determined to work with inputting our receipts once a week. this helps us to stay aware.
some helpful thoughts
keep your receipts it was hard for jon and i to remember to keep receipts, especially ones for small amounts. for items paid for in cash, we each have a small notebook that we keep in our cars or at work in which we'll record amounts. our system at home is to have a small cardboard box in which we keep past receipts that we've already recorded and a little bag in which we keep receipts we haven't yet recorded.
about transfering money you can transfer money! this is freeing. for example, we allow a certain amount of money for our two puppies per month, but this month they're getting neutered and spaid, which will cost more than our alottment, but we have extra money in our gas and cell phone categories, so we're transferring our needed amount. in our binder, on our dog page, we'll write under "description/name of place," "transferred from gas/cell," and on our gas/cell pages, we'll write under "description/name of place," "transferred to dog."
breathing room give yourself room to breathe. don't budget out to the penny unless it's a fixed amount like mortgage. give yourself maybe 15 extra dollars per category or whatever you feel would help your budget to breathe.
debt prioritize paying off debt. talk about freedom! God provided for us to pay off our car and credit card debt through bonuses and our lovely stimulus from our home purchase, (though consider federal and state returns or christmas/birthday money,) and it freed multiple hundreds of dollars per month. with our school debt, we are paying off mine at 1.75 times the required amount; at this rate, we should pay mine off in less than 5 years, after which we'll turn the amount we're paying toward mine toward jon's on top of the required amount, which should allow us to pay off all our school debt in a total of less than 10 years, which was the original time frame on just my debt! sure, there will be less money to work with today, but you'll know freedom from debt sooner.
if there are more questions, please ask! sharing this makes my joy complete!
Monday, May 03, 2010
what good is it if you love those who don't creepify you?
jon and i are learning a new circumstance under which to persevere in love: creeped-out-ness.
God is turning our eyes from us to others, slowly and sometimes in ebbs and flows, but surely. one demographic He has been giving us eyes to see is our neighbors. we've had lots of, hopefully, first conversations with them. one enclave of these neighbors lives on the street behind us and all of these are children (with which we've talked and spent quite a bit of time). one particular little boy, probably around 7, spends a considerable amount of time with jon, waiting for him when he knows jon will come home from work, mowing with jon, gardening with jon. and all of this, we've been excited about because we want to know, not just know about, our neighbors, loving them, showing them Jesus by our lives (hopefully), but jon just had a little interview with this boy that left us quite creeped out. the interviewee was jon.
interviewer
jon, what's the password to your garage?
interviewee
you don't need to know that.
interviewer
hmmm. what's upstairs in the garage?
interviewee
just some cardboard
interviewer
oh. how much do you make?
interviewee
enough
these are the first of their kind from this boy. and if we didn't both have a lot of experience with children, this maybe wouldn't concern us, but we do and have never been asked questions like this albeit maybe the question about income, but never questions like this in a line of unrelenting interest. we're concerned that they maybe came from his parents; we think from his and his sisters' comments that their family life isn't the best. anyway, before we loved them easily because of them - their obedience and the like - now, we're learning to love them because of God. another facet of knowing what luke said in chapter 6, verses 36-39.
God is turning our eyes from us to others, slowly and sometimes in ebbs and flows, but surely. one demographic He has been giving us eyes to see is our neighbors. we've had lots of, hopefully, first conversations with them. one enclave of these neighbors lives on the street behind us and all of these are children (with which we've talked and spent quite a bit of time). one particular little boy, probably around 7, spends a considerable amount of time with jon, waiting for him when he knows jon will come home from work, mowing with jon, gardening with jon. and all of this, we've been excited about because we want to know, not just know about, our neighbors, loving them, showing them Jesus by our lives (hopefully), but jon just had a little interview with this boy that left us quite creeped out. the interviewee was jon.
interviewer
jon, what's the password to your garage?
interviewee
you don't need to know that.
interviewer
hmmm. what's upstairs in the garage?
interviewee
just some cardboard
interviewer
oh. how much do you make?
interviewee
enough
these are the first of their kind from this boy. and if we didn't both have a lot of experience with children, this maybe wouldn't concern us, but we do and have never been asked questions like this albeit maybe the question about income, but never questions like this in a line of unrelenting interest. we're concerned that they maybe came from his parents; we think from his and his sisters' comments that their family life isn't the best. anyway, before we loved them easily because of them - their obedience and the like - now, we're learning to love them because of God. another facet of knowing what luke said in chapter 6, verses 36-39.
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