Money

Money seems to be on the minds of everyone today. Everytime one turns on the tv, you hear our President or a member of Congress saying things that evoke a sense of fear in Americans (this is on purpose you see, because fear is the only emotion that causes people to give up their rights...but that is a topic for a different blog post). Anyway, everything is going up in price, from goceries, to gas and electric bills, to our children's preschool tuition. The only thing that has not gone up is Steve's salary. We know many folks in worse situations with a job loss or a cut in salary.
So what to do? Well, since we don't have access to or the power to spend money that belongs to other folks (like our President and Congress evidently have), we have to cut things out of our budget (which is what you do when you can't spend money that is not yours). Thankfully, we have gone through Ramsey's Financial Peace, so we have the tools to do this and our finances are what he calls "recession proof" (and this has less to do with our income and more to do with our outgo of money). However, words like recession, great depression, catastrophic, and economic disaster are words that our President is throwing around on a daily basis (by the way, with little proof...) and these words make me anxious. Not nearly as anxious as I get when I think about the burden our Congress is about to put on our family, my children's families, and probably my grand-children who will all be slaves to this debt. To put all this in perspective, I have some words of wisdom (I can say that because they are not my words) I meditate on (meaning when anxiety creeps it's ugly head I say these verses in my mind...or at times aloud). I wanted to share them with you.

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. Ecclesiastes 5:10

Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them. Psalm 62:10

Do not wear yourselves out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. Proverbs 23:4

People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Timothy 6:9-10

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." Hebrew 13:5

There are many more verses... verses about not worrying about your money, verses about loaning money, verses about borrowing money. I could go on. But these are the ones that calm my fears after I have watched the news. If you have a Bible, look up "money" in the back. If you don't have a Bible...get one.
I hope to encourage those of you out there who are struggling, or mad, or anxious.