What Getting Out of Debt Taught Me About Trusting God
Why is debt so bad, and what should you do if you're in over your head? Here is a story that might inspire you.
Growing up in the 90s, I was given one of those compartmentalized piggy banks designed to help you “budget” your money. It had a slot for “saving” (a bank), “spending” (a store), and “tithing” (a church). From a young age, I was taught the importance of tithing and budgeting. However, I was not taught much else beyond that.
I was always a natural spender as a child. Every bit of birthday or Christmas cash would immediately burn a hole in my pocket, no matter how hard I wanted to save up for something. However, I was taught that tithing always takes first priority, as Proverbs 3:9 states, “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce.” Even with my first jobs, including yard sale money I had earned, I always made sure to tithe.
As I entered young adulthood, I didn’t fully understand the importance of managing debt and still hadn’t grasped the concept of sticking to a budget, not just creating one. I had heard that “credit cards are bad” and “student loan debt is ‘good debt‘” (FYI, there’s no such thing as “good debt”) for many years, so when I entered college, I thought I knew all about good debt management.
Well, I completely missed the mark in that area because I ended up with a ton of student loan debt that I was not paying attention to at all, and massive amounts of credit card debt.
Married With Debt
Years later, I found myself married with loads of student loan debt, some credit card debt that was slowly being paid off, and personal debt weighing heavily on me. All of which I brought with me into our marriage. I had somehow along the way forgotten how to treat money and become overwhelmed with nearly $80,000 of debt, the majority of which was mismanaged student loan debt.
I had not been a faithful steward of the finances God had provided for me, but I had made sure to always tithe. Over the years, though, even if I didn’t know where the money would come from to pay my bills, I always made sure to give God the first portion of my paycheck.
Thankfully, in the winter of 2023, Megan and I decided to take Financial Peace University together as a married couple with our young marrieds group at church. (We were originally supposed to in 2020 shortly after getting married, but I think we all know how that year turned out.) This was a major turning point for us both in our marriage as well as our finances.
We got back on track and were able to stay disciplined, diligently paying off all the debt owed in just 17 months. As soon as we finished that, we built our savings back up to where it needed to be, since we had used most of it to help give us a jumpstart. After all was said and done, we had been at it for just under two years.
This was a very trying time for both of us as we cut back on nearly every expense and lived a bare bones lifestyle for nearly two years, but God showed up again and again and again in car issues, in medical bills from fertility treatment, in whatever was sent our way. We felt like He was calling us to be faithful with what he was giving to us, and paying off the debt was the first step to a more fulfilling financial life.
We followed what Colossians 3:23-24 says daily, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
We definitely received some crazy looks from our friends and family from time to time as we sacrificed things that were considered normal to the rest of society, but we weren’t doing this for them; we were doing this because God called us to do it.
