I am often amazed at the workings of God. He teaches us in the most unordinary and beautiful ways. Each member, created in His image, offers a unique view of our God.

From a parent’s perspective, this is holy ground. Holy because I have been taught how He uses each of us to fulfill His will and purpose on earth. Our conversation about being debt-free is only one small piece of the picture.

Our next few blogs will be jointly written with our oldest son Keaton. He offers a different perspective on the journey to becoming debt-free. In large sweeping terms (and as Dave Ramsey explains) Collin is a saver. Keaton is a spender. Yet God is working in each of their lives to fulfill His great purposes.

There is no good debt.
There is no bad debt.
There is just debt.

Those who tell you there is such thing as “good debt” for wealth building, that building credit is necessary for living, that living with credit and debt is just the way out society works; these people are leading you astray.

Debt is not being a good Steward of what God has given you. We are called to be good stewards of everything God has given us: Our minds, our health, our hearts, our talents, our resources, our time, our wealth. Everything.

I know too many people who eat junk food so that they can afford their cable bill.
I know too many parents who feed their kids chips and soda so that they can make a car payment.
I know too many people who don’t tithe because if they did, they couldn’t afford their lifestyle.

The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7)

Debt is not a sin (at least in my humanly knowledge I do not think so). You are not loved less because of your debt. I am not loved less because of my debt. In fact, God so loved us that he took away our largest debt. He bought us at a price greater than any of us can imagine, because in the debt of our sins, we cannot walk with the Lord the father as he originally intended us to do. We were slaves and now we are free in Christ Jesus.

I choose to live debt free because my greatest debt has been taken from me. I have been liberated and I will not return to anything that resembles bondage. Most of us, myself very much included, don’t even recognize bondage when it has us in its grasps. In so many ways we are still blind.

Plus, if I am making payments every month for stuff I do not really need, then I am unable to help those in actual need.

I have done this by praying daily for God to transform me into someone who doesn’t need anything other than what He provides. I will tell you that it has been difficult and I am a work in progress. It did not happen overnight, but I have slowly been seeing the change from day to day. It is a bold and scary prayer. The things of this world are appealing, but we are not of this world and we are to be different than the ways of this world.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. (Romans 12:2)

A little something I have noticed in my life; the more stuff I own, the more stuff I want, the more money I seek to gain, the less and less I see God for who he really is.

Money is not bad, money is a tool. The bible warns us against the harms of debt and also the harms of money. If you wanted, and if you tried, you could probably find scripture to justify large amounts of both. But if you are seeking scripture to justify action instead of letting scripture guide you through the spirit, it may be time for self-reflection.

Let’s stop calling our material things blessings. They’re not. If you don’t agree with me, read the Beatitudes section of The Sermon on the Mount. Jesus tells us who is blessed and what a blessing is.

Let us strive for a simpler life, one of total dependence on God and his provisions. One of stewardship of what we have, for “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you the true riches?” (Luke 16:11)

For the love of family, be amazed and embrace the differences in your children and others.