Good Morning! Since I was rushed yesterday, I just finished taking 15' (instead of 5') to update my budget. HAVE YOU ALL LOOKED AT YOUR BUDGETS TODAY....DO IT NOW!! So far, even though we are still OVER for February, it is MUCH BETTER than JANUARY and I seem to be reigning it in. I am aiming to do even better in March! It is amazing that at the end of each day, even if I PHYSICALLY have spent NO MONEY that with our automatic bill pay, there is ALWAYS a some kind of total, even if it is just $1 under each day of my budget. Sometimes I feel like we are spending money by just breathing! Oh well, that is why it is SO IMPORTANT to BUDGET....whether you are making $25,000 a year, $250,000 a year or $2,000,000.00 a year! We can ALL BE BETTER STEWARDS with our financial blessings no matter where we fall on the pay scale! And remember, from dust we were brought into this world, and to dust we will leave. WE WILL TAKE NOTHING WITH US. WE ARE ALL EQUAL ON OUR LAST DAY! SOOO, how did your character reflect your life here on earth??

ECCLESIASTES 2:11, 17 "THEN I LOOKED ON ALL THE WORKS THAT MY HANDS HAD DONE AND ON THE LABOR IN WHICH I HAD TOILED;.....AND INDEED ALL WAS VANITY AND GRASPING FOR THE WIND. THERE WAS NO PROFIT UNDER THE SUN....THEREFORE, I HATED LIFE BECAUSE THE WORK THAT WAS DONE UNDER THE SUN WAS DISTRESSING TO ME, FOR ALL IS VANITY AND GRASPING FOR THE WIND."

FOOTNOTE Taken from LIFE PRINCIPLES BIBLE: "Long before the phrase was invented, Solomon climbed the world's ladder of success, only to find it leaning against the wrong wall. ONLY WHEN WE WALK THROUGH LIFE WITH GOD DO WE FIND ULTIMATE MEANING. How many throughout history have conquered vast territories, built great works, written brilliant prose, earned immense riches, won worldwide fame....ONLY TO END UP HATING LIFE? WITHOUT GOD, LIFE CAN'T HELP BUT DISSAPOINT!"


WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT GAGGING ON FINANCIAL INDEBTEDNESS
(Also taken from Life Principles Bible)

"THE BIBLE LEAVES NO DOUBT ABOUT GOD'S OPINION REGARDING DEBT. The following two verses speak CLEARLY on this subject, a painful one for millions:

ROMANS 13:8 "OWE NO ONE ANYTHING EXCEPT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER, FOR HE WHO LOVES ANOTHER HAS FULFILLED THE LAW."

PROVERBS 22:7 "THE RICH RULES OVER THE POOR, AND THE BORROWER IS SERVANT TO THE LENDER"

"As a nation, the United States has ignored these truths. One in five families in this country sits on the brink of bankruptcy. MILLIONS of people are no more than 60 days away from becoming homeless or in dire financial need. We have bought into a buy-now and pay-later philosophy that has been sold to us for decades by advertisers who tempt us to believe we must have their product in order to feel good about ourselves and to project an image of worth."

"WE HAVE SWALLOWED A LIE, AND WE ARE GAGGING ON IT!"

"A debt, like a mortgage on a house to live in makes sense, but GOD DOES NOT WANT HIS PEOPLE TO BE IN UNNECESSARY FINANCIAL DEBT. The ONLY thing we are to owe others is our LOVE, which we are to give FREELY and in tangible forms. THE PRICE FOR INDEBTEDNESS CAN BE HIGH INDEED."

"Listen to the heart's cry of a widow who said to the prophet Elisha, 'Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.'" (2 Kings 4:1)

"The deceased husband of this woman, a prophet associated with Elisha, APPARENTLY HAD LEFT HIS FAMILY IN DEBT.The woman appeared to have only one way to repay what her husband owed: Sell her children into slavery."

"We may protest, 'HOW HORRIBLE! HOW COULD A PARENT SELL HER CHILDREN TO WORK OFF A DEBT?' AND YET, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE IN THE UNITED STATES ARE DOING IN STRAPPING OUR CHILDREN WITH A HUGE NATIONAL DEBT. In just a few decades we have gone from being the world's largest creditor nation to debtor status ----and OUR CHILDREN WILL BE FORECED TO PAY FOR OUR FOOLISHNESS!"

"WE ARE TO BE GIVERS - NOT BORROWERS!"

GOD BLESS!

DEBT FREE JOURNEY


**Home Blessing Today: Clean out a closet on the main floor of your home! Bake cookies for kids when they get off the bus!


I CAN BE DEBT FREE



AUGUST 2012 OR SOONER!


THEN WE MOVE ON TO THE "OTHER STUFF" LIKE BASEMENT, MORTGAGE, BOAT.....