Sacrifice.

I see so many posts on facebook lately about suicide, struggling, heartbreak, divorce, etc. and a recent one had me thinking about how we can change our world for the better. For me, I look back on when I was fresh out of high school and had dreams as big as the sky. Looking back my dreams were a bit unrealistic and I knew deep down that they most likely weren't going to all come true. I was told "dream big" by well meaning teachers, friends, family and that I did. I thought that if I went to college, got a full time job and worked hard that everything would fall into place and I could keep up with the Jones' and live comfortably. Deep down, I had forgotten about my dream to be a stay at home mom and told myself that I would be able to just "do it all" without problem.

 Thankfully, my husband knew better and back when we were dating he was very determined to be financially free and knew how to achieve it. Sacrifice. Everything "the Jones" were doing that I wanted to do I had to give up for now. I wanted to spend $100,000 on our first house. Tommy found a free mobile house. It was a piece of work. He bought 10 acres and we placed that beauty on our first piece of property that is now a rental property that has blessed us greatly. We followed Dave Ramsey's advice to live debt free. Our 20's were spent working hard and putting down every extra dollar we had towards our mortgage.  The job my husband had was extremely stressful and time consuming. We made good money but we knew we couldn't keep living that way. At the age of 30,  we were able to purchase a logging business with the equity we had built up in our house because of the sacrifices we made and the "debt free" lifestyle we had. We had to continually make a conscious decision to not spend our money on things we wanted for now so that later we could be financially secure. "Live like no one is living now so you can live like no one's living later" is the Dave Ramsey motto.

Looking back, I was on a path of keeping up with the jones' and not actually living a life that mattered. I'm now 30 and have a more realistic view on the world. I see that "success" as the world sees it is not what I'm after. I'm after a slow, simple life in the country. Dinners every night with my family. More free time. Being a stay at home mom. Less stress. Looking back I'm thankful for the people who believed in me and my dreams but sometimes I needed to be told it's ok if all you have is a simple life. I live in a cozy little house in the country that is my oasis from the world and I would bet that the amount of peace, joy, happiness I feel is often times more so than the richest man in the world. It's good to strive for your big dreams. It's good to work hard. It's good to go to college. BUT it's not everything and it's ok to not live the life this world says you should live.

So why am I telling you this? Because I believe this is one way we can prepare people for a better life. Everywhere I look today, I see people who are tired, wore out, running here and there, dropping off kids and then to work and back again. It looks exhausting. No wonder we are seeing suicide rates climb. No wonder we are seeing divorce rates rise. Money is not the key to happiness but if we are smart with our money we can have more free time. More time with family. More rest time. More time for what makes our soul happy again. Make time friends. What can you give up today to prepare for a better tomorrow?                               The borrower is slave to the lender. Proverbs 22:7