It's Just Money!

Earlier this year my husband Patrick and I took a 13 week Dave Ramsey class called "Financial Peace University." I first heard about this course through a local mom's group I attended throughout the year. The first speaker at my mom's class back in October 2007 was passionate about finances, giving, helping people get out of debt etc. I was of course intrigued. At one point I was also watching a local morning show when who else appeared as a guest but, Dave Ramsey! I watched him and thought, how cool! So, Patrick and I checked out his website and found out that low and behold our church offered Dave Ramsey's class. We paid our hundred dollars cash, got our packet, lined up babysitting and were all set. We attended the first class and were wowwed! We learned about the seven baby steps and what happens when you start saving money early on in life, and how much borrowing with credit really cost, and the hook, line and sinker: how a $5 coffee cost $150 per month and if invested @ 12% from age 16-76 totals $19,371,943. OUCH. So Patrick introduced us to the entire class and our reason for taking the class was, "because his wife is a coffee junkie." Ha, ha, ha, ha.... but, hmmmmm, true. Then we were given our homework assignment, to complete a quickie budget meaning just one page of what it would take for us to survive every month. Another ouch.
Another week would come and we would be all set for class and then the "discussions" in the car on the ride home (we live 5 minutes from our church) would escalate into dare we say, arguements??? Or maybe just "lively discussions." Ha, ha, ha. It wasn't all too funny. There were weeks it was downright agonizing and tearful and all that had to be set aside as we walked into the house to greet the sitter for the evening and put our little boy to bed. I probably have never mentioned that my husband and I are both firstborns. We both lived on our own prior to getting married. And we were both raised in separate families who loved God, taught us right from wrong and in fact were raised very much the same in many, many ways. However, my husband being a man, and me being a woman have very different thoughts on how to operate our own household's finances. And taking this class revealed that we have different ideas about money. Not only that, but it revealed areas in our marriage where we needed to make changes because how we weren't paying attention to our finances was wrong. One of the verses that keeps replaying in both Patrick and my minds from our class is Proverbs 22:7 - The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. We don't want to be slaves to our finances. If we truely believe that everything is God's and He has entrusted us with "our" money, then we have a responsibility. This is an area we have been wrestling with and our character tested and stretched during this entire year. I expect this is gonna continue, especially after the baby comes and birthdays & holidays approach.