Logic

I love all of my children, but I get to appreciate different qualities I see in their individual character.  Isabelle is just like me so I get her most of the time (I don't always appreciate having a mirror of my own faults before me but that's a different topic).  Charlotte.  Well, she's a lot like her Daddy.  She's very logical.  She's also very thoughtful.  You put those two qualities together and you've got one smart kid! 
Here's a recent conversation to prove my point -

Charlotte:  How is a credit card really money?
Me:  Well, it's actually a promise to pay money. 
Charlotte:  Then why are they bad? 
Me:  hmmm, it's often poor decision making that gets people into trouble; not the card itself.
Charlotte:  How do credit cards work?  (see the logical side coming out?)
Me:  ~thinking of how to make by brain work like hers, I lay out a scenario~

1. Go to grocery store and buy $60 worth of groceries with a credit card which means you are promising to pay that at some point.
2. Credit card company sends a bill for $60 which you are supposed to pay but the company is so nice that they only require you to pay $10 per month, which you plan to do for 6 months.
3. Because the credit card company is nice enough to allow you an extension on your promised payment of $60, they will charge you $2 per month that you still owe them money.

Me:  So Charlotte, how much did you pay for your $60 worth of groceries?
Charlotte:  72 dollars.  That's like wasting money.

And there you have it.  Such wisdom from the mouth of my 7 year old!  I love it.  Plain, simple and honest. 

I have been one willing to waste money on things like credit card interest before.  The Lord opened my eyes and with His guidance and provision, no more!  Not to say that I am never wasteful because I'm sure I have and will spend money on non-necessities.  But I have come to truly hate debt...I desire so much to be completely free from it.  Even though the only debt we have is our mortgage, I hate it.  Now, I know it's viewed as an investment and I suppose it is but when I look at what we borrowed for our house and what we're actually going to pay for it in the end, I'm nauseous.

We are either good stewards or bad stewards.  Stewards of our time, talents, resources and specifically, money.  We can be wasteful or resourceful.  Logical.  Please think about how you spend everything the Lord has entrusted you with.  If I had one wish for people during this heightened consumer driven time of the year, it would be for them to pause before wasting. If my 7 year old can grasp that choosing debt is wasteful...

If you must be in debt, be indebted to a God that sent His Son to pay a debt you could never pay yourself.  There is a reason that God wants us free from the entrapment and entanglements of this world. 

Free.  Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I owe.

Laughing at the days to come

My agenda.  Key word there is my.  My agenda for the week, which I submitted to God, was to have no more health crisis or emergencies in my family's life.  Apparently I should have included no damage requiring home repairs...

*Disclaimer - No one is hurt!*

My family has had some major changes recently.  My grandmother's husband, Chuck, is quite unsteady and has difficulty getting around.  Today, coming in the house following a doctor's appointment, he lost his balance...I couldn't catch him.  Our living room window did.  Amazingly, he is not hurt.  If he had hit the window directly in the middle, he would have gone completely thru and onto the front porch and likely been cut up pretty badly.  After helping him up and discovering that he was not hurt we just continued on with lunch for everyone, periodically laughing because, really, what else can you do?  Nobody is hurt.  No hospital.  No stitches.  So, we get some new windows...we needed them anyway.  And my living room gets vacuumed twice in one day which makes me happy.  And...

As my husband says, this is why you keep junk...then you can board up broken windows from spare stuff you have out back.

Plus, Isabelle and Charlotte were able to go to Home Depot with their Daddy.  I'm sure there's a school lesson to be had there!  ;-)

Now I know why the Proverbs 31 woman laughs at the days to come.   Even fools can laugh!