Money is one of the biggest causes of divorce and conflict within marriage. It is also an area that Mitch and I knew would take some... practice. We knew this even when we were dating.

According to the financial guru Dave Ramsey, Mitch is a free spirit and I am a nerd when it comes to our finances.

This does not mean that Mitch doesn’t care. In fact, he cares a lot. The difference is attention span and interest level. Mitch cares because he wants us to be financially secure.

Quick tangent - Mitch is so sexy when he gets excited about getting out of debt and our financial future! I admire how he is leading us in such a positive direction.

Mitch has about a 20-minute window of focus for money matters. I, on the other hand, can crunch numbers and talk for hours about financial plans. When we first completed the “Relating with Money” session of Dave Ramsey’s financial peace university where he talks about nerds and free spirits, we laughed a lot because we felt like he had spied in on our budgeting sessions. I was blushing the whole time, embarrassed by my nerd-hood. (Yes, I did make that word up...)

Even though we started out feeling good and laughing a lot, this journey toward financial peace has been hard. Many times, we find ourselves crying and facing down tough decisions. We decided not to buy a house this year. Our budget is tight since we are scrapping up money for dental bills and paying off the car. Nevertheless, we do have some exciting news:

WE PAID OFF OUR STUDENT LOANS!

How much did Mitch still have in student loans? $19,994.00. Normally, we would not have been able to do this so fast. It would have taken a couple years, except my grandma blessed us years ago with some inheritance in a couple of different ways. Not a lot, but enough to get us a solid start. I added money to it in college and we let the compounding interest do its thing. As a result, we used a good chunk of that to pay off the student loans.

What is our next step?

1. Pay off the car.

2. Build our 3-6 month emergency fund.

3. Begin saving for a down payment on a house.

4. Investing.

We will never be rich, but we can be secure. God is good and we are striving to live in a way that blesses His kingdom through our giving and stewardship of money.

Challenge:

Take a serious look at your financial situation with your spouse. Pray and seek guidance in your finances. Don’t let Satan turn you against each other over money. You are on the same team.

If you find that you are not where you would like to be, check out the Financial Peace University. You will not regret it!

Dear Readers, those of you that are consistent, I am so sorry for my flakiness on posting blog. I thought about blaming it on our crazy past couple months, but excuses are just excuses right? I am not going to make any promise to you that I cannot keep, but I am resolved to continue our conversation on marriage—what can we do to make our marriages stronger and more Christ-centered.

Weddings, root canals, and debt—what in the world could these three things have in common? Well, for one thing, both weddings and root canals can put you in debt. Speaking personally, they summarize our past couple days.

This past Saturday, Mitch had the honor of being a groomsman for some friends of ours. The wedding was beautiful in its simplicity and focus on the couple’s journey and love. We had a blast at the reception. It was fun to see the newly married couple break some dance moves to “Oppa Gangnam Style”. Every couple needs to be able to let loose and shake some tail feathers right? Sadly, not all occasions are so joyous.

Enter root canals . . . I have never had one, thank goodness, but Mitch has not been so fortunate. In fact, he has had two . . . on the same tooth. He had a root canal completed a little over a year ago before we moved. The dentist that did it was, well, old, and very shaky. I could hear Mitch moaning from the waiting room. Long story short, that dentist retired a couple months later and Mitch found out that the root canal was infected after he swelled up like he had an egg in his cheek and came down with a fever on two different occasions. It was frustrating having to pay $850 to have a root canal redone. Yet, we realized that through this experience that God is good and he will provide.

Even though we know that God provides and we are incredibly blessed, we know the Bible tells us to be good stewards of our resources. Managing our money well has always been very important to Mitch and I. Nonetheless, we did walk out of college with some student. We have diligently chipped away on them each month; still, we felt complacency and a lack of purpose seeping into our budget and resolve. But after buying a car and now in the market to buy a house, God woke us up. We were encouraged to really attack our remaining debt through some wise friends and trustworthy advisors. At first it seemed risky, but the more we looked into it we realized we could do it. It won’t always be easy and it will mean turning down some opportunities that are out of our price range. However, we believe the freedom and security it will bring us is worth it. (Please, keep us in your prayers as we seek to be more intentional.)

So, is there a moral to these seemingly unrelated subjects? Why, yes, there is! I believe we are made in God’s image and called to glorify God in all areas of our lives: our marriages, our money, and our challenges, yes even root canals.

Question:

1.       What are some challenges that you have been able to glorify God through?