To this day he is married with 3 kids and the only debt he has is his house payment. Like I said I have been pondering this and my own situation. I got a really low paycheck this time around and I had to use some of my home equity to pay all the bills. Now, I am a computer geek (kind of) and I love Macintosh computers. Matter of fact I am writing on an imac right now. I am anticipating a large income tax refund (thanks to having lots of kids) and my wife and I agreed to buy a new apple laptop (already own one laptop and kids are always using it). And we pretty much have it all mentally spent. But I know the Bible teaches us not to have debt and to pay our debtors. I have nice things and you think that if you have nice things it will make you happy. But the first time you get a scratch on you brand new truck and the first time you have to put your SUV in the shop. Or the first stain you put on your carpet or the first time your toilet backs up all over the floor. It's not new anymore and you realize it's not the stuff that makes you happy. It's the fellowship with the Lord and other believers, that really fulfills our lives. I have decided that the next few years of my life will be spent getting out of debt. I am not getting a new laptop or anything else that is unnecessary. If I can do without it, I am going to. That's not to say I won't eventually get a new laptop, but I need to actually pay for the one I have now. I thought about how ridiculous that is, I have a perfectly good laptop and still owe money on it, yet want to buy another one. I cannot believe how easy it is to get so caught up in material things. Now I might be being a little hard on myself, I mean compared to a lot of others I am really not that bad in debt. But I am not measuring myself by mans standard, but by God's. The other thing that I thought about, is my lovely wife. I have a large life insurance policy, but it pretty much covers the house the cars and all the debt. And not enough left to live out the rest of her life on, maybe a few years. Now I could buy more life insurance, but I think that maybe that is just a band aid. That is why I am making a commitment right now, before the Lord Almighty, that I am going to spend the next two years getting out of debt. One final thought, and this is what really bothers me. Non believers see me and think, see, he is living for material things, and is in debt, what has God done for him. And that is the thing that breaks my heart. The world looks at us believers and thinks that because we stumble from time to time, that we are just hypocrites. Some even go so far as to say that Christians are the worst liars and cheaters around. Its like being a disciple of Jesus gets you a big microscope that watches your every move. What they dont see though is although we do stumble from time to time, that we have inner peace after repentance and that is truly the difference.
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]till then, God BlessClyde Walter[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]till then, God BlessClyde Walter[/FONT]
