Every seventh year you shall practice remission of debts. This shall be the nature of the remission: every creditor shall remit the due that he claims from his fellow; he shall not dun his fellow or kinsman, for the remission proclaimed is of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 15:1-3
A year ago we finally got tired of debt. Shannon and I had accumulated a nice amount in the 8 years we had been married and the minimum payments were not getting us anywhere. Where was Deuteronomy when we needed it!
Obviously it really does not pay “to Discover.” Credit card companies and student loan people are not interested in forgiving debt. The longer you have it the more money they make. We knew that something had to give, that we had to find a way to begin digging out of the whole we had gotten ourselves into.
Enter Financial Peace University. I had heard about it for a few years and decided that if we were in debt, tired of it, and it was not going to be forgiven then maybe there were others in the same situation. Soon we had a group of 18 families who join us at the church for 13 weeks to learn how to handle our money so that our future would be better.
The answer was not easy, we had to create a really tight budget in order to free some money to begin knocking down the debt. We took a deep breath and made the adjustments needed, at first we were only able to free $100 extra, soon the debt began to finally go down.
Our debts were not forgiven but we found a community to help us stay accountable to a tight budget and a change of lifestyle. We still have a ways to go but we can finally see the light at the end of a very long tunnel.
Although it does not pay to “Discover” it does pay to live simply, to live below the means provided, to be good stewards of God’s gifts to us!
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If you live near Squyres UMC in Ragley, join us for our next Financial Peace University class starting Monday, February 21 at 5:30 pm. Click here to register online!