Every choice we make will impact our life, whether good or bad, big or small, our lives will be affected in some way. I like what Joyce Meyer says; “Walking in wisdom means making decisions today that you will be happy with tomorrow.” What a great question to ask ourselves before we make major decisions or any decision that can ultimately alter our well-being. “Will I be happy with the decision I make today, tomorrow?

Many of us have heard from multiple sources that the two areas that affect marriage the most are sex and money. It is also very interesting to me that there are many rich couples who may not engage in much intimacy but are still happy. However, it’s less likely to find many couples who although are consistently intimate but broke and therefore still happy.


THE ISSUE

I and my husband’s biggest challenge over the past 13 years was proper money management. Most of our behavior was learned behavior and the rest of it was a lack of knowledge. But God saved us by helping us to discover the culprit of our money woes; our money blue print was set to “poverty”. No matter how much money we earned or how much was given to us, we would always subconsciously find a way to get back to being broke.


Some "Success" books label this type of behavior as your “money blue print” (everyone has one, good or bad). I also call it “life’s thermostat”. The Bible calls it a “mind set”. Whatever your mind is set to, your actions will follow. If you want to figure out why you see what you see around you, know that what you see is a direct result of your previous or current thought pattern.

We often made decisions “today” that would cost us “tomorrow”. The deception is that the consequences didn’t always ‘show’ up the next day; sometimes it didn’t show up for weeks or months at a time. So it seemed as if there were no effects from our choices, but soon things would begin to fall apart.

EMOTIONAL DECISIONS

If your emotions are running high, walk away and wait…… and wait…… and wait before you make any financial decisions that can negatively change the dynamics of your family’s livelihood. Emotions are not reliable; they are like the stock market, up one minute and down the next. Couples must learn to make decisions based on what is good and not what feels good at the time. For example, have you ever bought something only to realize shortly after that you no longer wanted it or needed it? If you can recall such a time, then you have a good example of emotional spending.

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONES’, SMITHS’, JOHNSONS’ AND ANYBODY ELSE WHO SEEM TO HAVE IT ALL TOGETHER

There is a movie that I watched years ago called “The Jones’”. In short it was about a family who seemed to have it altogether and everyone envied them for their “lifestyle”. In the end, the truth came out and revealed that the envied lifestyle was a fraud, including their last name. There was a company that actually paid people to pretend to be someone else so that others could buy into their lifestyle by purchasing the things that these people so-called owned. This particular family (The Jones’) led the people in the direction of the company to make purchases (cars, jewelry, shoes, etc.) and of course the company got rich and the company paid the family in return for their deceptiveness. Interestingly, they never got paid enough to keep up their “fake” lifestyle.

This movie is a good lesson for those who think that the “grass” is always greener on the other side. Thankfully Travis and I never felt pressured to try and keep up with anyone. Our issue was that we wanted too much too soon. And instead of trusting God, we tried to make things happen on our own.


We didn’t trust God. We were the 21st century Israelites. Although God gave us His word with many promises, we failed to trust Him. Faith without works is dead and faith with WRONG works is also dead. Here is what I mean. Even though we sowed seeds of faith though prayer and by giving our tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:10-), we still made poor choices.

THE “R” FACTOR

• The key to breakthrough is to first REALIZE that there is a problem.

• After realizing there is a problem (big or small) then REPENT to God for not trusting Him as His word tells us to. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding ….Proverbs 3:5 (Also forgive yourself, DO NOT BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER IT)

• RENEW your mind! Meditate on God’s Word Day & Night (Psalm 1:2) so that you will gain wisdom and understanding.

• Allow God to RESTORE you no matter how long it takes! (It’s a process) 1Peter 5:10 After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you. REST in knowing that God has promised to never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)
Sometimes things get worse before they get better.