Character

One of my many goals as a parent is to do everything in my power to make sure Alexa becomes a well rounded, contributing member of society, and the person Jesus wants her to be.  At times I struggle with finding balance in this.  I want her to have a fun life, and have and do fun things...but in the end I know that won't always be possible.

Since Adam and I got married just over a year ago, we made the commitment that we wanted to get out of debt and over the past year we have paid off quite a bit of it.  Almost $13k actually.  And while I view this as a great accomplishment, the sad fact is, we weren't consistently being diligent.  A very sad fact, indeed, when I see how far we have to go.  As part of this endeavor we enlisted Alexa's help...no she doesn't sell lemonade on the side of the road to pay bills, and we don't steal her birthday money (ok occasionally when I'm low on cash, but I pay her back!).  I want to pass along a great legacy to my children and grandchildren, and part of the way we're going to do this is by teaching them about money from an early age.

I am fortunate that my parents have always been good with money, and have done a great job of managing it over the years.  Unfortunately for me, it wasn't something they really discussed with us as kids, so when I was out on my own I felt lost at times.  Debt is so easy to get into, and nowhere as easy to get out of so it is a horrible trap too many Americans fall (and by fall I mean willingly walk) into.  Most of them permanently because they believe the lie that this is normal.  I was one of these unsuspecting people who fell jumped with both feet into the trap.  How did this happen?  I never witnessed my dad use anything but cash, and my mom has a credit card, but she is not the monthly minimum kind of girl.  It happened because well quite honestly I'm stupid at times, and because I have no sense of delayed gratification.

One of the ways we share this with her is by discussing our debt freedom plan, and telling her the steps we are taking to get there.  It means we don't go out to eat often ever, and we don't buy all of the things we might have before when we go to the grocery store.  It means if we go to Target to pick up something we need we aren't going to look for a toy while we're there.  On top of these things Alexa also understands that the payoff is big time.  Our goal of debt freedom will be celebrated with a BIG vacation.  Most likely 2 big vacations...a fun one for the family, and a getaway for mommy and daddy!  Come on, what child doesn't want to go on a big vacation???  This is something we remind her of when her consumer mindset takes over (I mean who would've thought that was possible at 6??) to help her keep our goals in site.

We believe God is going to bless these efforts and honestly already has.  It wasn't until we established our first budget and lived by it for a few weeks that the opportunity to partner with my sister and her husband at Back40Life became a reality.  God took our single income family and multiplied it with the blink of an eye.  There have been other blessings along the way, and somehow the money just seems to go further.  Amazing how that happens when you handle money God's way right?

I want to record the remaining steps of our journey here each month with an update on our finances so we have a record to look back on, and see how Jesus has poured out his faithfulness upon us.  We feel this is building not only our character, but our daughter's as well, and that alone is worth it.  When she is my age and possibly married with children, I hope she will be able to look back at the life we lived and be proud of it.  That she will feel like we paved the way for her to have a successful future.  I have no doubt there will be moments along the way where she doesn't see it, but if she appreciates it later that's just fine too.