Now I've done it. I jumped in way over my head and booked myself to give a seminar on a book called "Managers of Your Chores". What was I thinking? But I knew if I didn't set a time and actually say it out loud it wouldn't happen. The reason I think I kept delaying was because I looked around me and saw a house that wasn't perfect, but then it occurred to me, that is not the goal of the book. It isn't perfection I'm trying to teach, it's training my children to work, to run a home, to learn to love order.
Before I came across the book, I was drowning....in kids (5 under 8 years old), laundry, toys....all kinds of clutter. I had no idea how to manage it all as it was the first time I'd had 5 kids! Unfortunately they don't come with their own cleaning service! Anyway, once I got my hands on the book, it was like a light went on for me - I knew I would be ok. My home isn't out of a magazine by any means, but now there is more order than there ever would be if I hadn't started their system. It is now one of my life's goals to get their message into as many homes as possible!
I'll probably write more about it as I prep for the seminar which is in only a couple of weeks! Needless to say, there's a little more pressure on the kids to follow the system so I can actually prove it works!
We had another pow-wow last night as we keep reading through the book on financial freedom together as well. We dreamed of what it would look like one day. Two verses jumped out at us, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." We talked about how that applies to us. If we walk around down in the dumps, feeling sorry for ourselves, believing financial freedom will never happen, then, that is more than likely going to be the case. It'll never happen if we have a "woe-is-me" attitude. If, on the other hand, we believe in our hearts that we are going to press on, persevere, do our best, believing that we will be debt-free one day, then it is way more likely that that will happen!
The other verse was similar, "Without a vision, the people perish." We made sure the kids had a vision for being debt-free. If they don't get it, if they are not on-board, then they won't understand why the sacrifices are being made and they won't be able to go the distance with us. We don't want to build any resentment in them. We also took time, once again, to talk about what a mortgage truly is, explaining the words "principal" and "interest", etc. Though we've explained it before, they had lots of questions and for some of them the lights went on as they found out just how much was being thrown away each month to the bank for the privilege of owning a home. They were shocked. Once they found out that money could have been ours and they thought of what we could have done with it or how it could have been used, it got them excited. So, it's good to revisit these types of conversations and to keep the vision alive of what we're doing and why we're doing it.
We also told them how long it would take if we did nothing and just sat like bumps on logs. Their dad would be well into his 70s at the current rate of payment making him a full-on grandpa! We prayed for a way to make this happen. We prayed for freedom. We were bold. Our children know that this is about more than a wish list to go spend all sorts of money on ourselves one day. We long to do more than just travel and have a nice house. We also talk about contentment a lot - learning to stay content in God's timing. Anything can turn into an idol, even getting out of debt, if we aren't careful. Funny how something good can quickly turn bad if we let it get in front of God's place in our lives.
Well, that's all for now.....some crazy lady signed me up to do a seminar. Oh, that would be me.
No comments:
Post a Comment