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Have you ever taken the time reflect on how God has worked in your life? I love to reflect because I get the opportunity to see how God has been so faithful to me.
I had been talking about getting debt free since I graduated college in 2006 and I have tried many times to accomplish that goal. Instead of accomplishing the goal, I found myself robbing Peter to pay Paul no matter what I did. For asmuch of a planner as I am, I could not plan my Financial Peace without help.
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. – Philippians 4:6 And that’s what I did! I prayed and kept on the lookout for an answer. I was attending the young adult service at my church, VWC, and the pastor handed out a couple copies of the book The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. After raising my hand with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement like child in elementary school that is excited to know the answer, Pastor David handed me a free copy of the book.
My nerd antennas immediately were engaged and I read the book that night. I distinctly remember getting to the part of the book where you prepare for Baby Step #2 by making a list of all your debts. That list was to include EVERY debt that I had from small lines of credit to my car and student loans. So I followed the directions. I put my debts in order from smallest to largest. I had a total 9debts and when I added them all up it totalled to, what I felt, was a whopping amount of $69,605 in debt!
As I looked at the number on October 5, 2013, I sat there in my bed and cried.
I realized that I had been compartmentalizing the debts to make myself feel better.
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I had my car loan in one bucket because “everyone has a car loan and that’s not bad debt”.
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I had my student loans in another bucket because “everyone expects to die with their student loans”.
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And I had the last bucket for “bad, credit card debt” that I needed to get rid of.
Needless to say I was living the lie instead of “living the life”. I was lost in myths and untruths about debt. For someone who claimed to be getting out of debt, I had done a pretty sucky job at it.
And I realized God answered my prayer with a solid plan by getting this book in my hands.
October 5th started my commitment to change the way I thought, understood, and perceived my debt. I learned to see debt as a form of bondage. I was disgusted by the fact that I willingly gave my wrists to the debtors to lock on the heavy chains! I despised the way credit was marketed as a gift, when in reality it is an enablement to be a childish brat. I was disheartened that I sold myself into slavery for an iPod and all the other things that I “bought” on credit.
I realized that without debt, I could be free from the bondage of working to pay off my debts, free from living to work and instead I could work to live.
