Why do I write this stuff? I am not rich, I am not a money expert. I still struggle with imposter syndrome. Which means I feel like a fake when I write advice to people knowing how much I have screwed up my finances, but this blog is nothing if not a tribute to my failures in this area. This is part of my story.
When I became a Christian I was quickly lead into the health and wealth movement of the late ’90s. (Don’t judge me I was 16 and didn’t know any better) I attended a bible college run by a televangelist believing the whole time it was God’s plan to make me rich so I could be a shining light and give more to mission. I just knew that as long as I paid my tithe (10% of the sanctified gross income) God was obligated(yes I said obligated) to bless the other 90% and prosper me financially (Don’t judge me I was 18 and didn’t know better)
God slowly began to pull me out of that area of Christianity and to a Vineyard Church. It was during this time that God really started to show me things about money that I was not able to see before. I started to realize that the tithe is not the militant demand I had always been taught. I started studying what the Bible had to say about money and what people like Robert Kiyosaki had to say about money. What I found opened my eyes to things I never learned growing up.
I started to learn that God wanted sacrificial giving and that the tithe was not really applicable to the New Testament church. I learned that debt is a suckers game most of the time and it used by most of us to finance a lifestyle we can’t really afford to begin with.
I had come into our marriage with credit cards and stupidity, a really bad combination. My wife and I began to do things to pay down our debt, save more money and live more simply. I did what everyone did in 2005 I started a blog about what I was doing. It did pretty well but it was practical advice for the most part, I missed out on the part about being more generous . My wife and I were so focused on fixing our mistakes that we made a bigger mistake by not obeying God and giving. We gave, but not as much as we could and should have. We were selfish and scared of financial ruin. I spent some time after the housing bubble being bitter with God because we lost our shirts in the real estate market but ultimately realized God had a plan for that as well.
I went back to school and afterward I started this site to process through my mistakes as well as help people with their questions. There are a lot of people looking for answers. I don’t have them but I am good at processing through questions with people. At least that is what I have been told…
I write this because I want to help people understand how to steward their gifts well, whether that is money, talent or something else. I want to prevent people from making the same mistakes I made or worse ones. I want to help people keep their marriages together instead of fighting about money. I hope if you find this you enjoy it and somehow it can help you be a better steward of all God has given you, which if you can read this is a lot.
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