Lessons from Veggie Tales

Jasmine's newest favorite Veggie Tales video, Sumo of the Opera, has taught me something important. (how funny is that??) Not only is it hilarious, especially the idea of showing someone a silent movie while they're on the phone with you, but it's pretty deep, too.

The scripture verse at the end of it is Hebrews 10:36: "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."

I love "finished" things. I love the feeling of stepping away from the laundry, washed, dried, folded, and put away. Or a kitchen with no dishes on the counter (you wouldn't know that at the moment, but when the first load is dry I will wash the rest). I love finishing a box of cereal, especially if it's one I didn't particularly like.

But the past few days, I've started to feel kinda discouraged about our finances. Josh has been working 11-hour days for more than two months now. We've had some things that needed to be done before putting huge chunks of money toward the credit cards (like making sure we had enough padding in the bank account that we wouldn't immediately put more on the credit card). And I know that the things we're doing are going to make a difference, at least as much as if we'd just started paying extra toward our debt. But the credit cards feel rather neglected.

We've been going out to dinner again, which is supposed to come out of the money I make from transcribing his dad's seminar so they can translate it into another language. But we've been spending it before I actually get the check, so basically it's still coming out of our bank account.

So it's getting kinda discouraging. I mentioned to Josh that I'd like to just go back to the way we were living before, since we were somehow "making it."

But God wants more from us than that. When I think of how much our mindset has changed, how we don't see the credit cards as a way to buy things we can't afford, how the silly phrase in commercials about "with the money we saved, we can buy _____", how we're buying more meaningful, but less expensive presents for family and especially each other, we're cutting coupons and not buying the most expensive groceries on a regular basis...we really have come a long ways. I wish we could have started some of this when we first got married; we'd be in much better shape now. But we didn't know, and we have some awesome memories (Turkey and Hawaii) that I'm glad we were able to do pre-children.

So I'm thankful. I'm encouraged to "keep on keepin' on" and that it will be so worth it. The feeling of seeing the credit card balances go to $0, paying off my student loan...it will be out of this world. And then we'll have that money that can go towards fun things, instead of just paying interest on the current loans. And that will feel amazing, too.