A Different Sort of Mindset from the "Gimme Culture"

Dani has chosen the word "Faithfulness" for 2014, and has chosen a few different ways in which she wants to be more faithful this year.

If Faithfulness is our word for 2014, I'd have to say our word for 2013 was "Submission." I don't know, it was just the word that kept popping up into my mind all year. It was our first year together as husband and wife and so there was a lot of learning how to submit to one another in marriage. There was a lot of submitting to God as we brought our marriage before Him, as well as any issues that arose with the house we bought or the property we owned.

But I think the biggest reason the word Submission kept coming to mind is how we learned to submit our finances to God. After taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, I really began to understand how nothing I own is really mine. It all belongs to God. My paycheck. My savings. My home. It's all His. Dani and I are merely stewards of what He has given us. And the more we have recognized His authority over our finances, and the more we have practiced submitting to that authority, the more the Lord has blessed us financially.

This is completely counter-intuitive for many people. Our culture today is very selfish and people have little financial accountability—moreover they don't want any. We're a "Gimme!" society that wants more, gives less, and fiercely guards the meager portion that we have. But God calls us to let go. We need to be willing to take what we have and lay it at His feet. Luke 16:10 says, "Whoever can be trusted with little, can be trusted with much."

And then you've got to be willing to ask Him for more. Dani and I spent many nights praying together, asking the Lord to bless us with extra work and extra income to help us pay off our mortgage, and He has faithfully provided month after month, but I can't help but think that the whole submission aspect is a big part of that.

The more we submit our finances to God, and the more we acknowledge that everything we have comes from Him, and the more we seek His will for all that we have, the more He blesses.

Keep pinchin' :-)