Money and the Four Letter Word

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***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)


Take a look back at the verse above from Matthew 6:24. It is actually the love and worship of money that leads to debt. The greek word for “serve” in this passage is “douleuo” which has an undertone of “being in bondage to, to be a slave to” money. Ouch! Before we fall into times of debt, we often become servants of money. Whatever your present financial circumstance, I encourage you to find financial counseling and work diligently to pay down this debt as soon as possible. The longer we are in bondage to money, the more obsessed we b
ecome and less focused on worship our King, the One who takes away our bondage.

In fact lets start now with a short exercise to examine our spending habits. We can take small steps in changing our habits that will make a big impact on our debt.

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.


Here is my list:

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?










One Sister to Another Part 2-Friendship

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


This topic is so tender on my heart that I am almost tempted to scratch the whole post. But, here it goes anyway…



I expect too much from my friends.

There I said it.


I pour out my heart to those I love. Words of encouragement, prayer, support, advice, etc. It is my love language and I enjoy it immensely. I love to see the smile on their face. The relief when they know they are not alone. Like I said, its my love language.

Because this is how I express my love, I feel loved when the same is done for me. The trouble is I expect, rather, I appreciate or long for my friends to return that expression of love in kind. When they don’t, my heart hurts.

This is selfish of me.

I get that.

I’m working through it…


Through this soul searching {which is ongoing} the Lord keeps yelling out to me:

Get over yourself! I AM enough. I AM your friend. I AM your LORD. I AM and that is all you need.

Ok, Lord. I get it…sort of.

As I am working through this, my first thought was to completely give it up. No more Mr. Nice Guy {or gal}. I’m not going to put myself out there only to be hurt again. But yet, what kind of opportunity would I be missing to be used by God to encourage a friend who truly needs to hear something uplifting?

So as I continue to be there for my girlfriends, I’ve decided not to expect from them what only God can give me.

My El Shaddai

HE is MORE than enough.

Ephesians 3:19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.



This is raw, people. Again. I’m seconds away from NOT hitting publish on this post. Yet, I want to encourage you to let God be your I AM. Let Him be your friend. What ever overflows from that blessing, pour it out on your earthly friends. Be used by Him to nurture those that you love.


The End.

{I’m closing this post to comments. I know there are a few of my girlfriends out there who would bless me with encouragement on this particular topic. That was not the reason for writing this. :) }