***This is part one of a series of ideas I want to share from my PAST experience. I’m a girlfriend who wants to share so that you, my friends, might learn from my mistakes rather than deal with the heartache yourself.

DEBT. An ugly word. You are not alone if you find yourself uttering this four letter word.

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”( Matthew 6:24)

This is Jesus speaking to his disciples and directly to you and me about the love of money and elevating it to a place in our heart higher than Him. Quite a dangerous place to be, according to him. Often times, with the love of money, comes the shackles of debt.

Maybe you find yourself in a similar spot as Heather. ( I found this in a news story)

“Heather Schopp is a chiropractor in California dealing every day with her clients’ physical pain. But her own pain is financial: At age 29 she is more than $170,000 in debt.

“I think about it every day,” Schopp says. “I mean, I lay in bed, thinking in my head, ‘Okay, how much money do I have? What will I have to do tomorrow? Do I have to buy anything?’ “

Schopp is part of the exploding number of young women who are rapidly turning into “Generation Debt.” These twenty-somethings are weighed down by hundreds of thousands of dollars of credit card bills and student loans.

Schopp works two jobs, six days a week, just to make ends meet and keep pace with her debt, but it is still not enough.”

There is no amount of debt that Jesus can not handle. Jesus actually says in the book of Luke that there is nothing that is impossible for God. (see Luke 1:37)

Make a list of the top five purchases that you would call guilty pleasures, or unnecessary to every day living. Beside the item, write the approximate number of times you purchase this item over four months. Then, write down the approximate dollar amount of each item.

Cheap PINK Shiny Lipgloss: 3 times, $8.00 each

Coffee from coffee shop: 10 times, $5.00 each

Books, Books and more books: 4 times, $15.00 each

Quarts of Ben&Jerry;’s Icecream: 8 times, $6.00

Cute, funky, cheap shoes or jewelry: 10, $19.00

Your list might consist of many different types of things like makeup, videos, iTunes or extra trips out to dinner. As long as they are not necessities, these items qualify to go on the list. Now, multiply each item by the number of times you purchase and then add it all up for your grand guilty pleasure total.

Over the course of four months my grand guilty pleasure total is $372!!!

Yikes, over the course of a year, I spend about $1,488 on stuff that doesn’t fill that momentary void of emotional spending. Can you imagine if we made a list of all the items on our guilty pleasure list?!

When we worship Him instead of money paying down the debt becomes easier. I would venture to say that $1,488 would make a nice dent in a long standing credit card bill or a student loan. Going forward, lets rethink our need to purchase and redirect that need toward worshipping our God. Nothing is impossible for Him…nothing.

So tell me. What was your grand guilty pleasure total? How can you use that extra money to pay off some bill or loans?