Money

When Jeff and I were first married we weren't very wise with money. We didn't prepare for the lean times ahead and they came with a vim! We weren't planning on having children for quite a while and therefore didn't have health insurance. So our first 2 babies brought $18,000 in debt.  Business was not going well at all. We were charging our food to eat. We were in debt far more than he made in a year! We had one junky car, a card table to eat on that had 3 wobaly legs. No washer or dryer. No matching furniture. In fact we only had a couch to sit on, that was it other than the metal folding chairs at our dinning room card table. (When ever someone stopped by we had to move the folding chairs in front of the couch.) A one bedroom apartment with a loft that smelled of the previous renters' ferrets. And found out that we were expecting child number 3. Lean times indeed. They were hard. Miserable. Stressful on our marriage. Did I mention miserable?

Looking back, I'd choose to go through them all again if it brought the same fruit, the same faith and trust that God provided!

The Lord used our situation to bring us to salvation. I remember the first part of October, after we were saved for about 6 months. All I had to wear to church was my tennis shoes and white sandals that I wore all summer. Jeff was convicted that we should start tithing and I was convicted that I needed some brown shoes so I wouldn't have to wear my worn out white sandals or my grungy tennis shoes to church! We could start tithing right after I got my shoes! Well, he won, and we started tithing. I was not the cheerful giver at the time! The very next month someone sent us a gift of $4,000. I got my brown shoes.

We were newly saved, maybe 2 years in our Christian walk, and God directed Cutco to offer Jeff a position in WI, we had to take it. It was more money, but not what we needed to get out of debt. But we didn't have many options so we moved when Daniel was 4 months old.  That was a hard move with 3 little ones 5 and under!  We lived in an apartment in Waukesha for the first 6 months, then found our duplex in Brookfield and rented there for 6 years.

Jeff has had a personal conviction for me to stay at home, and God honored that financially. Things started looking up. We found chairs in our neighbors garbage, that were a puky green and a throw up yellow. They didn't match anything, but they were something else for the 6 of us to sit on other than our couch. (A friend of ours would comment every time she visited in regards to the chairs: "You know you can cover those with something instead of looking at that color all the time!") We found a good deal on a dinning room table and we no longer had to set our drinks on the counter by Jeff and ask him to pass them to us because the card table was too wobbly to hold drinks.

5 years later we were completely out of debt, ready to buy our first house. Jeff was a changed man. The stress was gone. Megan was 12 years old before we ever could afford or owned our own house. But she didn't care about that. Her memories are of us being together as a family, of me being home with her.  Here, we were able to buy our first 'new' living room furniture, and put the old stuff in the basement. Jeff said that we could get rid of those puky colored chairs now, but I wanted to keep them. I want to always be reminded how God supplied a need and saw us through. I always want to remember and remind our children that there were some tough times. (I also want to show my friend whenever she visits because I still haven't covered them! ;-)

We are one and I wanted to help in any way I could. Being frugal, clipping coupons, second hand shopping, etc. I baby sat for a year or so, but that was really hard with my own little ones, being sick and pregnant, sleepless nights. I would help Jeff stuff envelopes, roll up flyers and whatever else to make things as easy for him. I believe the absolute best way to help a husband is to be content. No murmuring or complaining. I think the Lord kept us in the desert until I learned this concept well!

I firmly believe, without a single doubt, that the only reason we are so blessed today is because Jeff stayed true to God's Word. Satan surely tempted and made us wonder. But God's ways are so much better. I'm so thankful for these stories that I can pass down to our children. How I can share with our boys the hero their dad was during the hard times. How he stood firm and steadfast, worked hard and long just to provide for his family. And if we do something extra or special we explain that this is a blessing, and they always say thanks to Jeff and God for taking them out to eat or on a bike ride or on a vacation.

That's my experience. My opinion is...seek God! Trust His Word, follow willingly whatever path He has for you! Encourage your husband in any way you can. Show him thankfulness in whatever he is able to provide for you. Study the content heart, and share what you've learned with your children. One lady told me when I was griping about our situation, "If God doesn't provide it through your husband, He doesn't want you to have it!". That hit me hard and has stayed with me since!

Your decisions are also discipling and shaping your children. They are watching closely what you do, what you think is important. Do they see you trusting in God in the lean times? Even thanking Him? Following and staying true to His Word, come what may? Counting your blessings, and grateful that no one has had to go to bed hungry, that you still have a place to call home, and have such love and joy from just being together. Someone once told us that one of the worst things you could ever do to your children is to let them know you have money. That things come easy for them, that they never have to do without. The lessons our children have learned from our experience is priceless. Praying for certain things, and seeing God answer them is amazing! This was but a season, but God will work it out for good!