You Gotta Do The Work

As poor college students and now as poor young kids just starting a career, finances are often our number one concern. For years, a fairly regular thing we've been praying for is financial stability. It usually goes something like this, "help us to be smarter with our money/live within our means/be more stable/get rich quick/stop being stupid." Well this past month I've re-learned a lesson about prayer. Just saying it in your prayers isn't enough.

This month we've really taken control of our finances by cutting expenses and sticking to a strict budget. And it's amazing to see all the extra blessings and opportunities that we've received just because we took that first step. We've been using the envelope system and we love it. Most pay periods we're out of money after a week. But this month, the pay period is almost up and we still have a good amount of money set aside for savings, gas, and a washing machine. It's all about living within your means. We used to think we didn't have enough means to live but now we've found that there's plenty to go around if we're just smart.

Now about those blessings I mentioned. They might seem small and trivial to some, but to me they've really been testifying the true power of prayer. We started this new budgeting system and almost immediately after we went on the cruise, which meant absolutely no household expenses like gas, food, and electricity for a whole week. Then after the cruise we really started to see the blessings pouring in. First we got an email from someone on Craigslist who was interested in Adam doing some design work for him on the side. Then we got news of a mini pay increase at work. Then our etsy shop exploded with activity. We've had three good sales and two potential sales all in a week when normally we get one or two sales a month. And then we were featured on somebody's treasury list. (ours is the Beatles subway art at the bottom.)  I know that probably doesn't mean anything to you if you don't use etsy. But we think it's a pretty big deal to be recognized like that.

Anyway, my point is this: Prayers are just words without the action part. You gotta do the work. We're finally figuring that out, but I'm sure it's not the last time we'll have to learn this lesson. Here's to not being stupid and  to sticking with this new way of thinking.

P.S. Sorry this was so boring. I promise the next post will have some Jack pics.