I am a teacher, husband, and father of two small boys. On the side, I enjoy writing – both in my blog: Reflection on things fantastic, and my own fiction.

In the past few years, my wife and I have been trying to free ourselves from debt. We have under $100k in debt, most of which is mortgage. Not a bad situation, really. However, no matter how much we budget or sacrifice – last year, in order to make ends meet, we moved into a men’s dorm where I have part-time duties, and we’ve been trying to sell our house – the debt isn’t going away as fast as we’d like.

My part-time job has many advantages: we have a free living arrangement, as many free meals as we want, and I get to work with godly people toward godly ends.

My full-time job is what I am called to do. I teach 30 minutes from our home, not a bad commute, though rising gas prices are making it painful. The salary is very low, and the insurance is worse. Because of that, we have to buy our own family plan – yes, it’s cheaper, but still pricy.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not me complaining. I love what I do, and I’m thankful the Lord is providing. I’m also learning a great deal about leaning on Him for everything we need, and about listening for His voice in every situation. These two things alone are worth more than dollars, and have eternal value that I see clearly.

There’s this lesson as well: not everyone can eradicate debt in the slick, easy fashion that’s headlined on the web so often. I just read an article on Yahoo! about a couple who paid off almost $50k in debt in less than a year. I think what they did was great, quite the Dave Ramsey example, but the truth of the matter is that I just don’t make as much as they do. I’m doing, or have done, just what they did – and even more than them in many ways. Yet the debt trickles away instead of flowing off like we want it to.

But the truth of the lesson is that our patience is what will gain us freedom in the end. I don’t care if it takes three more years, we will be debt free. So even though all the debt snowballing techniques are great, and I believe they work – alongside living within what you make – it’s the patience to see it through when you don’t have a large income, and nothing left to cut, that will really get you (and us!) to debt freedom.