Show me the MONEY.

I know it has been a while since I have posted, but I decided to break the silence with something that has been on my mind lately.  I have been struggling with this whole concept of a budget and spending money wisely.  I recently went through a job change, which is very stressful, cue the stress spending.  You almost don't realize you are doing it until afterwards, when you are looking at your bank account dwindle.  I have always prided myself on having a nice cushion or as Dave Ramsey would say "Emergency Fund".  The cushion took a hit...a big hit.  So now I am freaking out, because as most of you know, women love security.  Emergency fund=security.


Here is the crazy part.  If the timing of the old/new job would have shifted a few days, I would have had the potential to make extra money in the midst of my job shift.  But...timing didn't shift...and I didn't make extra money, so now I am stuck wondering why.  I think this is a teachable moment for God (you know how parents always talk about teachable moments with their children).  He was going to use this to teach me something about wise money management, something about WHAT I spend my money on, something about HOW I spend my money.


Then I saw this:





Dang it...........So I am now on a mission to be an excellent manager of my God's money. 


Matthew 6:24
"No one can serve two masters. Either he'll love the one and hate the other, or he'll despise the one and be devoted to the other.  No one can serve both God and money."

Confession time.

Confession time: I have been dragging my feet. BIG TIME.
Procrastination is definitely something I struggle with and people close to me can testify to that one!
One example of my extreme procrastination occurred in my Senior Seminar class at Upstate. Every student is required to take some sort of Senior Seminar class before they can graduate. In my senior seminar class, I had to conduct a research project. All I can say is the class is an entire semester for a reason. You are supposed to work on the project the entire semester. I waited until the last three days of the semester to begin working on mine. I did nothing but type and drink coffee for three days straight to complete my final research paper (that I had to pass to graduate). I got a B+.
I often feel like maybe if I was given consequences for my procrastination, then I wouldn't do it anymore. Although, I am not completely sure that would make a difference.
I was listening to a sermon by one of my favorite pastors, Pete Wilson, titled More. He was talking about how when God calls us to something faith-filled, we often run to our hiding place. We can run to insecurity, fear or procrastination. He wanted each person to take a minute to think about what their hiding place was, but I didn't need a second to think. I knew instantly. My hiding place is procrastination. It is so easy to run to procrastination and people understand the excuse: "I am just too busy." or "I haven't been able to get around to it yet."

"Big moves of God are almost always preceded by obedience to Him in the small things." Start with the small things that God asks of you and build on those. How do you break the cycle? Intentionality in spending time with God and being disciplined in staying in the Word.
Where is your hiding place?