I thought you were dead....

Hey all....well, whomever of y'all are left. Sorry it's been too long since I have been here, so let me catch you up with what has kept me away from posting.

The 10 for 10 challenge is done, and hope many took part. My wife and I did our very best to keep in line with the challenge (talk about the perfect word), and I can't say we were 100% successful at it. We missed a couple givings to God during the 10 weeks. I have this huge sense of failure. I should have done more. I should have been more free and had more faith that we would be ok. The desire to stay in line was definitely there - just the cash didn't exist. And yes, that is a trust issue....let me come back to that. But the cash was just not in the bank to cover the bills that needed to be paid, as well as showing God just how much we love Him. Not to beat on a dead horse, but pretty much the entire blame is on my dog. Just kidding....the blame in on poor planning.

I can't stress budgeting enough. Even a friend who I have a lot of trust and respect with informed me at Shorewood yesterday that they are now a budgeted family. I know his business skills and talents, so I'm pretty confident his salary is deservedly more than mine. But if they are doing it, we all should. Now, how did our budget fail? Our budget failed to take in account the summer months that Kath does not work. Drop 35-40% of you income (maybe more) and see how you survive when savings are non-existent. You won't, and we didn't. We did make it to now, and the honor for that goes to the family members and friends that helped out.

I bet you are thinking "Ok Jeff. What's your plan?" I am glad you asked that. Step one - 2nd checking account for bills ONLY. Into this account will go my paycheck. Out of this account will be bills and bills only. No home budget like groceries, entertainment, etc (not yet). The idea is to get the budget and my family working by seeing how we can pull off life with one paycheck. As bills get paid off (those non re-occuring like medical and such), more expenses can be moved to the bill account. Step two - savings. Those lean months can be survived if just some of the other paycheck is stored. So just do it, ya nut. Third - control. Getting to an "envelope system" (literally or figuratively) to reign in out of control money output. With all that, budget works. When budget works, honoring God works. When honoring God works, money loses it's control on my life.

So back to the trust thing. Why did I not trust God during those lean pay weeks? Did you ever have a gut feeling? We all do. I have this gut feeling that God really wants to bless me and my family in an amazing way. I just don't think God plans to open up a vault of cash for my family. If you knew the story of my family, cash isn't really something we need. And it's never really been anything we want. Heck - if I one Lotto, I would more than likely give everything away, paying people's mortgages and giving tons of food to people in need. But grace and miracles - we really could stand for that inside my home, and I think that is God's plan.

So we got back on track with tithing this week. Next date of giving in the 19th, with a double thanks to God. As much as I have confidence in being blessed, I still have a while to go with some of my trust issues. This journey is not close to being done...