Fired up about Debt

Remember that post last week about being bored with Dave Ramsey....I take it back. Which if you know me, that's a hard thing for me to do. I am very much like my Dad when admitting I am wrong. But there- I said it- I'm wrong. I even got an email from my cousin Angie that said she'd love to take the classes. I literally rolled my eyes, and thought "sure...go ahead!" Sorry Angie...that means no offense to you...I rolled my eyes at everything in this class.I am just tired of crunching numbers. I am tired of talking about money. I am tired of thinking about it. We are fine, we pay our bills on time, we tithe, we save, we invest in our retirement, we invest in our son's college account....what else is there left to do.....until last night. The class was about dumping debt. It was a fantastic class, and Angie- I'm eating my words about not wanting to be in the class! You get the last laugh :) I left the class so fired up about it, I could hardly sleep last night!
I am thankful to be hearing these stories from real people, with real problems. I am thankful that Nathan and I are realizing that living debt free is not only possible, but its the right thing to do. Our concentration now is going to be getting totally out of debt. Our goal is the next 5-7 years on tackling this. When I say get out of debt- I mean totally, house and all. Luckily, we only owe on a mortgage, and Nathan's student loans. We have been sending triple payments to Nathan's loans, and until we get them paid off, every extra cent is going towards them. We are going to take advantage of the low interest rates, and refinance to a 15 year mortgage, and pay bi weekly payments so that we can knock it out even faster. Just as Dave says....." Live like no one else today...so later you can LIVE like no one else." I liked the saying and the more I thought about it, the more I thought it could apply to our walk with God. Paul wrote, “The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”(Romans 8:16). To be children of God means to live like no one else. Just like there are times when spending all your paycheck on fun stuff is what everyone else is doing or even what you would rather do, there are times as a Christian that certain decisions prevent you from having fun with certain friends or at certain places. These are the times as Christians that we have to choose to live like no one else.
We will not be a slave to the lender.....