We will persevere.

At every turn it seems that we are beaten down and dragged in the spring mud. Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University is a 13 week / 91 day course. It is hard work and great information. Homework every week and hard to hear lessons. He has 7 baby steps; today we worked on Baby Step #2 - Pay down debt using the debt snowball. Steps #1 and #3 have to do with saving and emergency funding. Although we are four weeks in now, J and I are only at step #1. Sadly, and not for lack of trying. We are discouraged and frustrated. Kinda hopeless at times.

Since January of this year we have been living on dh's severance which is now gone, and has been for quite some time. He has applied for parental leave, which should be coming, and we assumed would be here by now, but it's not. We were counting on dh's income tax return to fulfill Baby Step #1 which is to put $1000 in our emergency fund. Not going to happen now. When, if, it gets here, it will have to pay the bills to keep the lights, and phones on and the house warm. I guess we are living in an emergency.

Step #3 is 3 to 6 months of expenses in savings for when an emergency arises. If we had that, we'd be okay. However, we've been living on whatever savings and other money to get to this point.

Moving on, to other great news (read with sarcasm)! The transmission in the van needs attention. We are not 100% that it is totally broke, but it's not good. We're back down to the suburban, which doesn't seat all 7 of us. I'm so bummed.

But the Bible is FULL of encouragement.

Psalm 50:9-11 - KJV -

⁹I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. ¹⁰For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. ¹¹I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

And this next one is often quoted:

Matthew 6:24-36 - KJV -

²⁴No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. ²⁵Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? ²⁶Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ²⁷Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? ²⁸And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: ²⁹And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? ³¹Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ³²(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. ³³But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. ³⁴Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Jeremiah has a great message too. Although we may feel abandoned, for a long time (70 years??), God still cares.

Jeremiah 29:10-14 - KJV -

¹⁰For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. ¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. ¹²Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. ¹³And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. ¹⁴And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

And this one can definitely be applied directly to money:

Luke 12:48 - KJV -

⁴⁸But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

We ask the question of ourselves - Have we been doing well with the "little" we've been given? What do we need to do to prove that we can be trusted with "much"? What lessons do we need to learn and apply? We wanna learn them, apply them and help others.

So we continue on, doing the best we can with what we have; learning the lessons we need to learn to do better in the future. We rejoice in the fact that God provides. We will persevere and we will succeed. Even when all seems hopeless.

Learning to live my life with purpose,