Money Matters; The “T” Word!

Just a little over a year ago, Warren and I signed up to attend a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University (FPU) course offered through our church. It was life-changing and I’m not even exaggerating. I’m the designated bill payer in our family and managing our finances was always, let’s just say an “issue” for me. We are small business owners and our income has always been incredibly irregular.

There’s no Medication for This Type of Irregularity

Needless to say, Warren and I have had many a conversation about this irregularity. I was constantly asking how much we still had outstanding in accounts receivable so I could then guess how much money I needed to transfer from the savings account and when to make upcoming bills. And more often than not, if I transferred money, it never made its way back to the savings account.

By the time we signed up for FPU, we were more than ready to get a handle on our expenses and learn whatever we could to make better decisions about budgeting. Check that, we needed to make better decisions about spending. We wanted and expected to learn how to save more money. We wanted to know how to get out of debt! What we didn’t anticipate, was learning how to accomplish all of those things but also learn how to give our money away! And that single lesson, the biblical practice of tithing was the biggest game changer of all for us!

Not Just a Budget

We did learn a lot of strategies about budgeting in the FPU course, which I am happy to say we have continued to practice for a year now. Following the course discussion on getting out of debt, we made a decision to sell our newer truck that was costing us way too much money in payments and insurance each month. We then adopted the strategy to only buy used vehicles (which we had already begun implementing years earlier) and to only buy what we could afford to pay cash for (that was the new part of the vehicle lesson we learned!) We learned about other ways to reduce our debt and I’m excited to say, that beyond our mortgage, we are nearly debt free! Oh yeah, and we learned to tithe!

Once we fully accepted the fact that everything we have truly belongs to God, we had a major mindset shift.  We learned and accepted that as Christians, it was right for us to tithe and that it was right to trust God fully. With that shift in our mindset, my anxiety about bills getting paid and an irregular income virtually went away. I’m not going to say that I never worry about money matters because those woes do still creep into my head at times. But when that happens, I try to catch myself early and remind myself to just trust. Trust in God and pray for that trust and peace to come over me and it works!

What Tithing Isn’t

I know this is a touchy subject because most of us experience some degree of anxiety over finances at some point in our lives. There never seems to be enough and it is a very private matter. And unfortunately, money can very easily and unintentionally become an idol to many of us. Tithing on the surface may seem like something old-school or something negotiable. But there really isn’t any room for negotiation according to the Bible; anything less than 10% of our firstfruits is simply not tithing, it is an offering.

Now I don’t want to come off as preachy here. There is absolutely no judgment on my part and I only want to share with others our personal story and the impact that tithing has had on our lives. Like every other aspect of each Christian’s relationship with God, tithing is about prayerfully consulting with God on a very personal level! And to be completely honest, tithing was negotiable for us before completing FPU. Our giving to the church was an offering  that was nowhere close to what we should have been tithing.

The relief from stress that tithing has given me personally is immeasurable. Because you see, you can’t and shouldn’t tithe simply to check off that box as a Christian. We can’t tithe and then regret and worry about what all we could do with that money that we are sending to the church every month. It can’t be about tithing for the sake of getting something (other than peace) in return. You should only tithe when you can wholeheartedly give without worry and regret because you know that your God will take care of you. Relinquishing our money matters to God has been the most liberating thing I have ever experienced.

The Struggle is Still Real

We still deal with the irregularity of our income and unfortunately so does our church since we tithe based on what we make each week, which could be nothing for several weeks and then whoa — a windfall! We’re tough on a church budget; can’t always count on us for a solid amount each week or month! But we are faithful in our giving and that is where we find peace.

And while FPU does have some tools to handle an irregular income it didn’t exactly give us a clear-cut and simple method. What it did give us were other valuable tools that helped us to come up with a plan that now works for us perfectly. I would love to hear comments from anyone else on money matters and specifically tithing. Do you struggle? How do you deal with the stress? Have you attended FPU and did it make the same differences in your life that it did for us? Did you attend FPU and it didn’t work for you? I know tithing and money matters in particular can be quite taboo, but personally, I think it’s healthy to share the struggles because just about everyone has them!

So in closing, money matters, it matters to God. It matters to Him how we manage our finances because everything already belongs to Him! And what an amazing gift from God we have in tithing! He gives us the ability to freely give it back to Him in exchange for an inner peace; to know that it’s all going to be okay! Please leave comments; let’s get this discussion rolling!

In His Grip,
{Shelley}