Financial Angst or Peace: You Choose!

Posted on February 16, 2023

Have you ever found yourself in an unexpected financial situation that left you feeling out of control and afraid? Well, that’s happened to me more times than I can count. A relatively recent event occurred in 2020 when the pandemic hit. It had caused businesses to be shut down and people to stay at home. As a boarding kennel owner, I acutely felt that in my checking account. The kennel provided our main source of income, so when it decreased by up to 60%, I found myself to be very afraid. I didn’t know how we were going to pay our bills, and even worse, how we would be able to pay for my husband’s cancer regimen; Insurance doesn’t cover natural health care. The fear was palpable, and it was starting to control my life. I was impatient and thought that we would never escape from the shortage.

Once the world started to shut down, I was dreading the days I had to pay bills until my oldest son said to me, “Mom, why don’t you just give it to God?” That was the start of my journey towards trusting God to handle things that were out of my control. Yes, I had an awakening that day, but shifting my mindset spanned over months. Due to our income significantly decreasing, we had to make decisions on which bills to pay and which would have to wait. It created a great deal of strife at various times over the past three years as we fell deeper into debt. Yet, when the negative money thoughts would arise, I started looking at them and remembering what my son had said. To be honest, I didn’t always take it to God first, but I did work on how to think about the situation. I began to realize that I couldn’t control whether people used my kennel services or not. I also understood that my husband’s health came before bills, so that really made the financial decisions easier to face. We could only do what we could do and God would handle the rest.

As the weeks and months went on, I got much better at dealing with our financial state, and eventually I started to look at money as just a resource as opposed to my source, since everything comes from God. In hindsight, we used to spend money recklessly and complain about not having enough, but now we can see the results of our poor decisions and have learned to spend wisely. I used to believe that money came only from hard work, and if I didn’t have it, I wasn’t working hard enough, so I would just work harder. I let it control me. Then I learned where the real power is; It is in me because the Holy Spirit is in me. I couldn’t change that we owed money, but I could be discerning about prioritizing how we used it. After all, it belongs to God anyway. I have power over my thoughts which means power over my attitude when I’m going through tough stuff. I chose to tell myself, “This is only temporary” and, “God’s got this!” (And more recently, "We live in abundance"). I felt good knowing we were doing all we could. Sometimes we need to do less and just be still. We need to focus on simply taking the next right step and then be patient while God does the work in our lives on his timeline. We also need to realize that, as believers, God will use our trials for good (such as gaining wisdom) if we love Him and want His will.

Although I have grown tremendously and altered my thoughts around money, the enemy is still opportunistic with my emotions surrounding our finances. Periodically, we get hit with new and unexpected financial responsibilities, and he tries to put anxious thoughts in my head. One recent one involves our septic system. Not only do we have to pay weekly to get our septic pumped until the weather is agreeable enough to install a new one, but we also have to pay for a whole new system. We’ve also had several of our old debts catch up with us, so we’ve started paying those off as well. It seems that we begin to make progress and get knocked back again. Even today, one of the creditors withdrew a significant amount of money from our account, disregarding their agreement to take it out next month. Of course, the immediate response is to get angry (which comes from the fear of not knowing how we will manage), but I always choose not to remain in that state. I’m reminded of the grace and blessings that are to come and that God never lets us down. Our circumstances are temporary, and I believe we will live the abundant life that God wants for us, when He says we’re ready.

I am constantly getting better at thanking God for all of my blessings and choosing to live in joy instead of fear, despite the circumstances. Even though I’m a coach, I’m not immune to having emotions. After all, God put them there to prompt us to respond, to act. They’re actually a gift. When we feel an emotion, it is a clue to what we’re thinking. I reiterate that I can only control my thoughts and attitude and make choices, hopefully that align with God’s word. That’s why, despite all of our financial troubles, we continue to tithe with good hearts. We have experienced God’s blessings on our finances numerous times over the past few years. He always made sure that we had the money to cover the most important expenses when we didn’t see any way it could happen. We’ve traded our fears for God’s peace! As we work to get ourselves out of this financial predicament using the blessings of slow but steady increase, we still live with hope and joy every day!

I invite you to share your beliefs around money and how you handle the financial stress that shows up in your life!

Always choose joy, and you’ll have a brighter outlook on life!