My weekly weigh-in revealed an eight ounce gain. I’m still in the game and going forward! Halloween wasn’t too scary for this recovering eating addict; one Reeses peanut butter cup was all this chocolate lover ate!
Can I get a whoop-whoop!?!
Sunday, I was up early, to peddle my heart away on Fierce.
Only later, to snarf a half dozen tootsie rolls and milky ways in the afternoon – I am a work in process (or is it that I’m a piece of work?).
Here’s our little Pirate and Tigger with Dave!
(Thanks for the Tigger hand-me-down Jody; that fit the budget perfectly!)
God gave me an unusual nugget this week – I’ve heard that He speaks differently to all His kids, so I wonder why He chose to talk “unusually” to me? Hummmmmmm…(I can just hear my sisters talking right now!)
It is D3…
Sounds kind of mathematical for a criminal justice major, huh? If your kids need help with their math homework, don’t call me…call Dave. I have remained in a mathematical plateau since algebra. College calculus was not kind to me…
D3
When I became open to the idea that God was interested in being involved in my everyday life, I freaked. I’m not kidding. “Oh no, I’m becoming one of them…those Bible-thumping-Jesus-freaks!” Would I next have to get my foot sized for bowling shoes, cause’ isn’t’ that the only fun Christians are allowed to have?
After a long season of transition, I came to terms. I can have fun, love Jesus and not be restricted to just bowling alleys! (Not trying to dis any of my bowling sisters here!)
I pray that others do see a difference in me and if they want to label me as such, so be it and thank you in advance! The reason I feel so strongly about this is because all He’s done for me. I’m keenly aware that He didn’t have to. He did it because He loves me. And how I love Him!
D3
Six and a half years ago, God began a big work in me. I thought it had to do with my emotional eating. Yup, I’ve lost and kept off over 65 pounds – thank you Jesus! Recovering from emotional eating is a miracle in itself. But, it wasn’t just what I ate, how much I exercised or how much I prayed. It involved how I talked, what I thought and how I spent my money (just to name the short list…I’m not kidding again here!) God cares about all of this. Remember, He desires to be part of daily living!
For the LORD corrects those he loves,
just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. Proverbs 3:12 (NLT)
He does love me…even when I feel like He’s kind of picking on me (I’m just being honest here).
The bottom line is, He needs to teach me self control (aka: temperance), so I can be useful to myself, others and for Him. I only semi-cringe when I hear “self control” or “temperance” spoken now! That’s a huge improvement from the gag-reflex that once occurred!
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23a (NLT)
D3
Two Sunday’s ago, our awesome pastor, Pastor Kent, afforded Dave and I an amazing opportunity to share our financial story. God did a miracle in our finances, and I don’t use this term loosely!
If you’re interested:
When the Seatbelt Light is On – 10/26 Sermon Archive
You can watch it at:
http://www.cfellowshipc.org/media_player.asp?messageID=21337
or listen to it at:
http://www.cfellowshipc.org/media_player.asp?messageID=21302
Another miracle; Dave did all the talking! For those of you that know us…you know what a miracle that is too!
Just wondering, is the gift of gab considered a spiritual gift? He, he!
So what’s all this D3 business about? I got my decoder ring and here we go.
God is transforming me from a Doubtful Depressed Disciple to a Delighted Disciplined Disciple.
Because He’s showing me how to be disciplined in all areas, He’s changed me from depressed to delighted.
What does money have to do with eating? Oh, it is so related. It has to do with humility, something I still daily struggle with.
When I chose to spend more than we earned, eat more than I was hungry for, made decisions without prayer – I had to come face to face and admit that I had a humility problem. Know what I did about it?…went to the Big G.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10 (NIV)
I needed to (painfully) humble myself and admit I was an emotional eater. It was a painful experience for this military veteran to admit I was obese and needed help. Know what God did? He lifted me up. Got me moving, loved me, and supported me right where I was.
I needed to humble myself and admit we were over spenders. It was embarrasing again. Despite that, know what God did? He lifted us up, gave us a Godly Pastor Kent that challenged us to read the The ABC’s of Financial Freedom By: Barry L. Cameron, which we did and led us to continue our journey for financial health.
Dave dug deeper into Crown Financial Ministries and I dug deeper into New Life Ministries with the Lose It For Life program.
So I leave you today with this mathematical equation:
D3 + Humility = D3
Do you feel depressed and doubtful and long to be delighted? Sister, I feel your pain. I lived in that prison for a l-o-n-g time. Humble yourself and pray to God…He WILL provide a way out! You’re no dummy if you pray!
PS
Just in case you might be interested, I included our financial story penned by my hubby:
Financial Testimony
David Fink
It was 2002 and our first son, Jacob, had recently been born. We had been “borrowing” from savings each month to make ends meet. We had prayed and felt strongly that God intended Steph to be a stay-at-home mom. However, with only enough money left in savings to get by for one more month, we were facing the reality of Steph having to work outside of our home. In fact, we had already refinanced our home once in order to take some equity and make the savings stretch that far. To top it all off, I hated my current job and needed a change.
We had previously been tithing off of my net income but had just recently started tithing off of my gross income, and boy was that number gross! After much prayer, delay, and further prayer we knew it was the right thing to do. Steph had recently starting listening to the teaching of Joyce Meyer. Steph approached me with the idea of giving over and above our tithe with a monthly donation to Joyce’s ministry. At first, I baulked at the idea because we were already struggling. However, I saw how much Joyce Meyer’s ministry had meant to Steph and how much she was reaping from it. So, we started giving monthly to that ministry as an act of faith.
A few weeks later, I was talking to a friend of mine. We had flown in the Air Force together and he was now a defense contractor. He told me to send him my resume, so I did. A few days later, I was sitting in Crystal City at a job interview with his company. Things went better than expected and they offered me a job. They offered me a salary of 17% more than my current employer. We had been faithful and God had provided, but God wasn’t done with us yet. Six months after starting the new job, I was given a raise of 6%. But the journey wasn’t over yet.
Two years passed and our second son, Caleb, had just been born. I was commuting 3 hours to and from work every day and was barely seeing my wife and children. I had already left for work before they woke up and I might have 30 minutes a day with them. A long time ago, I had vowed that I would not be an absentee father. Steph and I had discussed the possibility of us moving so we could have more family time but nothing ever seemed to pan out.
Then one day at work, out of the blue I receive a phone call from a recruiter. A company in California had heard about me and wanted to know if they could interview me. I was flattered and stunned. I told the recruiter that I would listen to what this mystery company had to say. The company first interviewed me over the phone and then flew me out to San Diego for a follow up interview. Prior to me leaving for San Diego, Steph and I had been in prayer over this new job. We felt God was calling for us to move for some reason. We vowed to be faithful. God had been so faithful to us, how could we not?
The afternoon of my interview in San Diego, I was offered a job and I accepted. Steph and I had prayed on what salary to ask for and that was the salary I offered. We felt this was further confirmation from God that we were bound for San Diego. We would move across the country just to have more family time together. However, our families were less than pleased that we were taking “their” grandchildren so far away.
Truth be told, Steph and I were both torn over the decision but knew it was the right thing to do for our family. My family was only 3 ½ hours away and hers was 5 hours from our home in Virginia. We hated the idea of our boys growing up without really knowing their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, but decided to follow God.
A short time later, Steph flew out to do a house hunting trip and put an offer on a house, contingent on our house in Virginia selling. That problem was quickly hurdled because we received an offer on our house within the first two weeks of it being on the market. Once again, we felt this was further confirmation that God wanted us to move. We continued our move preparations. We made one final trip to see our respective families.
The weekend we were saying goodbye to my family, we received a phone call from our realtor in Virginia. The buyers had backed out. We were now forced to remove the offer on the house in San Diego. The next few weeks were full of stress. The housing market had begun to fall and no one was looking at our house. I had lined up temporary housing in San Diego but our savings could only handle a few months of paying temporary housing and a mortgage in Virginia. Nevertheless, we felt as though we had to be faithful. We truly felt God was calling for us to move.
After I had been offered the new job, I gave my current employer four weeks notice. It takes a while to move coast to coast. They voiced that they didn’t want to lose me but after hearing my main reason for leaving, was for a shorter commute, they realized there was not much they could do to avoid it. Remember, Steph and I wanted to keep our family, not my job, the priority. My current company had also just been purchased and everyone was busy with the acquisition. I thought they just wrote me off as a loss. God, however, had other plans.
Steph and I were ten days away from moving to San Diego and two days from shipping our first car to the west coast. While at work, my Technical Director and I were talking and he wanted to know if they moved me to the headquarters, if I would stay. The headquarters of the acquiring company was ten miles from my current house! I remember thanking him for the offer but Steph and I were committed to the move. That night, Steph and I discussed my earlier conversation with my Technical Director. We prayed and felt God wanted us to keep our options open. Never try and put God in a box! The next day at work, I approached my Technical Director and told him that if they moved me to the new office, I would consider staying.
Two days later, God opened the flood gates. Not only would they move me to the office ten miles from my house but they offered me a promotion with a salary within $5,000 of what I would have made in San Diego. The new salary was a 20% increase! Steph and I were truly overwhelmed. That night we thanked God for His generosity. God revealed to us that he was testing our faithfulness and we had passed. This was truly a humbling experience. As thankfulness to God, we increased our monthly partnership money to Joyce Meyer Ministries. But, God wasn’t done.
Needless to say, I stayed with my current employer. I have been given increasingly greater responsibility. However, I wish I could say that we have always been good stewards with what God has blessed us with. We have made mistakes along the way. Thankfully, God put it on our hearts to be disciplined. After we decided to stay in Virginia, we toyed with the idea of upgrading to a bigger house. We shopped around and put an offer down, again with a contingency that our other house would sell. By now, the ho
using market was in a free fall. Our house didn’t sell by the deadline and we chose to remove our offer.
How is this showing discipline, you may ask? God showed us that we had everything we needed in our current house and we wanted to be faithful with what God has trusted us with. If we had “upgraded”, once again money would be tight. If we stayed where we were, we would have margin, breathing room. We started following a budget. Through the knowledge God has blessed us with; we now have no car debt. In fact, we have been able to pay cash for our last two cars. We also have zero credit card debt. We pay off the balances every month. Because of His blessings, we are able to pay down the mortgage debt we do have by paying extra every month towards the principal. We are also able to continue investing in our retirement and building our savings account.
I now make double (100% more!) the salary of what I did when this testimony started and are able to support three ministries with money above our tithe. God has proven, time and time again, that he will be faithful to us. Sometimes, all it takes is one small act of faith to see it.
