Striving to do what is right...

HA! How funny... this was a blog that I initially wrote in November 2012. Apparently, I never published the post to my blog. I just realized it when I went to publish the most recent post "Coming Soon: NEW HOME." HIS timing is right... I learned that it is about having patience during the "wait period." I am thankful I waited for His perfect timing!

Striving to do what is right... but understanding that it is NOT my timing, but HIS!

For those of you that know, Seth and I have been living a "Dave Ramsey" life for quiet some time now.  We have been budgeting, tithing, using our envelopes, saving, saving, and saving!

In an earlier blog, I was pleased to announce that we had recently conquered "Baby Step 3." For those of you that are familiar with Financial Peace, we can't technically move on to the next "Baby Steps" until we purchase a home. It has been since that time (October 2011) that we have been saving for our first home.

Well, in my "need" to always feel like I am control I thought it would be beneficial to save until we were dead (okay, not really, but it seems like it). No, I thought it would be best if we saved as much cash as possible in order to have a substantial down payment. On a side note... I am the type of person that gets my mind set on something and GOES FULL BLAST until it is achieved! Well, Seth and I talked about it and thought that it might be beneficial if we went ahead and tried to see what getting a house would "look" like for us in our current financial situation. We did some figuring and we were able to determine the mortgage that we would be able to afford and still live comfortably. It was then that I called to speak with a loan officer, inform her of our current financial situation, provide documentation, etc. I did not know what to expect as I was anxiously awaiting the phone call.

It was then...... that....

She returned my call to inform that we NEEDED to be in debt in order to obtain a loan for a mortgage (due to a lack of an inactive credit score as a result of being out of debt for the past two years!) Seriously, I almost lost it! I couldn't believe it... we had worked so hard to get OUT of debt, get our finances in order, give, and save. That is what we are supposed to do, right?

Needless to say, I was extremely aggravated and discouraged. She attempted to encourage me by giving me options... options I could have DONE without! She began telling me that I could take a bank loan out, I could go buy something on credit, I could get credit cards, etc. There was a lot of STUFF in-between all of that, but I had a reached a point of no longer listening. I hung up the phone, discouraged, and uncertain. It was then that I remembered... "It is His timing, not mine."

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1

The best 2 years of my life!

I know... I know... It's been a LONG time since I updated my blog! Life has been extremely busy, so I have a lot of updates!

First and foremost... Many of you know that I went to Hardin-Simmons to get my Master's Degree in pursuit of a state license to be a professional counselor. Well... in April I went and took my state board exam and PASSED! It is official and all of the hard work has paid off! However, I also wanted to get my state license in chemical dependency counseling, so I went in June and took that state exam and PASSED! Officially... I am now.... Jesse Potter, M.Ed., LCDC, LPC-Intern. I am under supervision for my LPC until I complete 3,000 hours, but all of the hard work is behind me!

Many of you may have read about my career passion on a previous blog, but through all the stress and uncertainty God continued to push me and reveal to me in various ways that I was doing what it was that he had in store for me. There were evenings after work where I wanted to throw my LPC study materials against the wall and not have to think about it. Looking back on my education, preparation for my state board exam, and passing both state license exams it has definitely been a fast paced couple years. Today, I am able to say with confidence that it has been worth every minute and I am truly blessed to be on this "half" of it!

God has continued to "show up" and "show off" and I am forever grateful for the opportunities that have been handed to me. I was offered a job back in January at Serenity House Drug and Alcohol Treatment that fits perfect with what I need to fulfill my supervised hours, as well as give me excellent experience. On top of that, it is in a field that I have been extremely interested in for a while now. Yes - I know the only word that comes to mind is BLESSED!

On top of all of the exciting career accomplishments... June 5, 2012 marked our 2-year anniversary and I must say it has been the BEST 2-years of my life! It amazes me each and every day how blessed I am to have such an amazing, supporting, love, etc. husband. To celebrate all of the accomplishments as well as our 2-year anniversary we went to HAWAII! We left on Sunday, June 3rd and stayed for a week at a fabulous resort and had an amazing, relaxing time! When we went to Hawaii for our honeymoon we scheduled numerous excursions, because we thought that would be our only opportunity, so for this trip it was nice to be able to relax and not have a schedule. We hung out on the beach, went to the spa, layed by the pool, went zip-lining, drove the road to Hana, went to the spa again, and ate some amazing food! It was such a relaxing, peaceful trip, especially after being so busy for the past several months. Thanks to my wonderful parents for the graduation gift, we had a fabulous time!

Our next vacation...  Key West, Florida!

And the journey continues...

Wow! I did not realize how long it had been since I had posted a blog. There has been a lot that has happened since then, but one significant thing I wanted to share.

In October we finally achieved our 6 month emergency fund savings. It seemed like we were never going to reach it, probably because we were already focusing on our next step/goal. The "sense of security" after we completed Baby Step 3 of Financial Peace is amazing! There really is a true sense of living in financial freedom when you do not have debt hanging over your shoulders and you have enough money saved that if something happened everything would be taken care of. It is a terrific feeling! This entire program has changed our lives and we are forever grateful. We continue to give and it feels great to know that the money was never ours to begin with, but that we are being good stewards. I look forward to the day where we can give so much more. "Live like no one else, so later you can LIVE/GIVE like no one else." That saying is becoming much more real to us!

Our next step is a house! We have now begun saving for our very own home. Don't get me wrong... we LOVE the place we live now. Our landlords are amazing and it has been a perfect "starter" place for us, but having something that you worked so hard for and that you can call your own will be pretty wonderful! Wow - to think that all our debt is paid, we have two emergency savings, and that we are saving for our very own home! It all seems unreal what we have accomplished in such a short amount of time.

Again, I give the credit to God and for a husband that was willing to live a different lifestyle. There have been so many days where I have struggled with doing all of this and feelings of anger and resentment begin to brew, and then I begin to realize that this is really the ideal way that God intended for his people to live. He is LORD of EVERYTHING, included FINANCES! This experience has definitely been life changing and opened up my eyes in ways I never thought possible. I got a bumper sticker from a friend the other day, "Debt is normal, be weird!" AMEN! I am pretty sure that God calls us to be weird too. What a coincidence?

This Financial Peace stuff is for real... you ought to try it - it will CHANGE your life!

Baby Step 2 COMPLETED!

Wow! God is continuously blessing Seth and I, and we are extremely thankful!

The end of last August we started the "Financial Peace University" classes at our church. It is a 13 weeks series that teaches about managing your finances. "If you live like no one else... late you can LIVE like no one else." I was super excited about taking the class because I had talked with a couple people about their financial testimonies. Seth was not as excited about it, but agreed to go with me. It was shortly after the first couple classes that he became just as excited as I was and we were both on the same track. We began applying the principles and making changes in our life. We got all our envelopes organized, got our emergency fund in place, got our budget created, and began the process of the "debt snowball." Don't let me fool you... It was a bit overwhelming at first. There were times that I was working on our budget and wanted to just throw it away and forget about it. It's been difficult and a learning process, but it is definitely paying off!

Funny stories...

1. I had the money in my "grocery" envelope and was super excited about going and spending cash to get our monthly groceries. We went to the grocery store at the beginning of the month (knowing there were still a lot of days left in the month) and to get out of the store it took every bit of our cash in the envelope! I got in the truck and cried because I thought there was no way I was going to be able to figure the right amount every month. I wanted to give up - but it quickly hit me that I need to stop trying to be perfect the first time at something I have never practiced. Needless to say... there have not been any more trips to the grocery store like that first one and it has gotten better every month. We use coupons and have actually saved a lot of money!

2. I do good for about 3 months and then I have what I like to call a "Dave Ramsey relapse." Seth and I have pretty much stopped eating out all together unless someone gives us gift cards. I cook, he cooks, and it saves a lot of money! Well there have been several instances where we were doing really, really good and then it just hits me... I want to eat out OR Dillards is having a huge shoe sale OR Seth wants to go to Academy... It all works out in the end and again we are reminded that it is a learning process!

3. About 4 months after we got married I decided to back out of the garage and hit the neighbor behind us. There was not a whole lot of damage, but there was enough that I wanted to get the car fixed. I was beside my self and bawling my eyes out. I call Seth at work and explained to him what happened. He comes home and goes to the neighbors house (he is probably about 80 years old) and explains to him that we will fix his Jeep and get everything taken care of. The neighbor is only concerned with me being upset and crying and tells us not to worry about it, because he is just going to get some touch up paint to fix his bumper. Well... we were still going to get our car fixed and our deductible was $500. I was still very upset and knew it was all my fault that we were going to be out this money. Seth sat me down and reminded me that everything works out the way it is suppose to and that we would get it taken care of. He asked me, "Why do you think we have the emergency fund?" That was when it hit me... I thought that emergency fund was there and that it was NOT to be touched, emergency or not. Anyways, we got the car fixed, never missed the $500, and even gave our neighbor $10 for the cost of the touch up paint. It all worked out! :)

Now that 9 months have passed and we have been "living like no one else" we can officially say, "WE ARE DEBT FREE." We have paid off $13,300.00 in debt in 8 months. The feeling of knowing that there are no more monthly payments and that that money can be put into savings is ammmmaaaaazzzziiinnnnggg! We are now working on saving our 3-6 month emergency fun (which is half way complete) and then we will begin saving for our very own new home!

God is so good and he teaches us that when we are good stewards of his money and give to him he will bless us. We are definitely seeing those fruits and are extremely thankful for everything he is doing in our lives!

It's hard to believe...

It is hard to believe that it has been seven years since my mother passed away. Some days it seems like its been an eternity whereas other days it seems like it was just yesterday. Looking back over the past seven years, I definitely can see where God is using me.

When I first came to Hardin-Simmons University in the fall of 2006 I thought I needed to major in Business. It only took me three classes to realize that I needed to do something else or I was going to be miserable for the rest of my life. I did not know what I wanted to major in and felt a pressure to make a decision. My advisor recommended me taking random introduction courses to get a feel for what I wanted to do. The following semester I took an Intro. to Sociology, Intro. to Criminal Justice, and Intro. to Psychology. I was praying that God would put me where he wanted me and that my career would please him. Little did I know that God was working on me in a mighty way. It was only a few class periods of Introductory Psychology when I felt that it was not only what I wanted to do, but what I had to do. Being a psychology major and studying counseling and human development for my master's degree has answered a lot of questions from my childhood. I believe wholeheartedly that God put me in this profession to help those who are suffering, whether it be depression or substance abuse, and I cannot wait until I am fully licensed to do just that.

We have been studying a lot at church and in our life groups about how God turns pain and suffering into good and I truly believe that he has done just that in my life. Thank you Lord!