The 21-Day Financial Fast by Michelle Singletary

Author:Michelle Singletary
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2013-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

TESTIMONY TIME: Day 10

My wife and I were not in one accord in our spending habits, and she didn’t trust that the fast was a means to financial freedom. As we know, when one half of the union does not agree, the fast can be difficult.

After meeting with a Senior Partner, we felt there was hope for us. By virtue of being obedient to God and to the fast, we were able to see his blessings and applied $13,000 to our debt within the first three to five months of being in the ministry.

Alton

FAMILIAR FIGHTS

It’s often said that money is the main cause of marital discord and even divorce.

But that’s not quite accurate. What really causes the fights is all the emotional baggage — fear, mistrust, immaturity, selfishness, or lack of self-worth — that gets stirred up when money enters the conversation. Money — that’s just a convenient, albeit huge, catalyst for the quarrels.

One major problem with modern-day marriages is that people go into the union behaving like roommates, not lifetime partners as the Bible describes: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24 NKJV). Couples intellectually know — or should know — that God says we should become one flesh, yet somehow they don’t think that applies to having joint bank accounts. They don’t think that means sharing all their financial information with their spouse. They try to divide up everything as if they are living with a roommate. I know that’s what I had planned on doing before I was married.

I wanted to go into my marriage with seven different bank accounts:

• My savings account

• His savings account

• My checking account

• His checking account

• A joint savings account

• A joint checking account

• A “home-wrecking hussy” account; you know, in case he ran off with some home-wrecking hussy

The idea for that last account came from my grandmother, Big Mama. She told me that every woman needed to keep some of her own money in her own secret bank account. As much as I loved my grandmother, she was wrong. And if you are keeping an account secret from your spouse, you’re wrong too.

Here’s a biblical principle that will bring peace to your house: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Phil. 2:3 – 4). Let’s take a closer look at some key phrases in that passage.

Selfish ambition. Selfish ambition is never a good thing, and it’s especially destructive in a marriage. Selfish ambition is looking out for oneself in a greedy way. One plus one can equal more than two in a marriage, but that kind of math means taking the focus off yourself and working as a team. You can’t work as a team if one member is off doing his or her own thing financially.

Vain conceit. Vain conceit is never going to show up on a list of admirable character traits.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.