Dear Discover Card... No Thanks!

Dear Leslie M Sweet,

You never know when unexpected expenses may arise, so it’s good to have credit available to back you up. As a reminder, your Discover card has a credit line of $6,300.

This is the beginning of a letter I got the other day from Discover Card. The truth is, I don’t know when unexpected expenses may arise, and it is good to have something to back me up, but AVAILABLE CREDIT is not what is GOOD to have to back me up. What is GOOD to have as a back-up is an EMERGENCY FUND!!

The other truth is, that until I had an emergency fund, my available credit WAS my emergency fund. While I cannot predict WHEN an emergency will arise, I can predict that one will. My chances of an unexpected expense arising in the next 12 months is about 99.99%. The chances that I'm saving for that unknown event: 100%

So while I do have $6,300 available to me in available credit, I also have an emergency fund. Even though credit is available to me, I will do everything in my power to not accrue more debt. I just don’t think God was kidding when He said that the borrower is slave to the lender and I refuse to willingly enslave myself to Discover Card – or anyone else for that matter. I just don’t know how I can live a life that honors God when I willingly put others in front of Him.

Dear Discover Card,... No Thanks!

April 14, 2011

http://thoughtsfromfreedomfinancial.blogspot.com/2011/04/dear-discover-card-no-thanks.html

When God speaks through a 6yr old

From 2/15/13:
http://thoughtsfromfreedomfinancial.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html

I recently sat down with my son and told him the story of Caleb (from the Bible) again. I reminded him how God told the people (in Numbers 13) that He is going to give them the land of Canaan, so they should send out spies to check out the land. 12 men go out and return with mostly the same report. The land was flowing with milk & honey (good) however the city has huge barriers and the people who live in it are giants (bad). 10 of those 12 men told Israel that they couldn’t do it – it seemed too hard, with the giants and walls and such…But Caleb said: “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.”
You see, Caleb saw the walls and the giants too - he wasn’t blind. But, Caleb believed God when He said that He was giving them the land. Caleb knew that giants and walls were no match for our God. Caleb probably didn’t know at that point HOW God would give them the land, but He knew God would – because He said He would.

I love to tell my Caleb that God is going to use him to do great things too…that when all of the people in his life say that something is too hard or scary, that he too, will trust God, and by all means, overcome it!

And then, without even knowing it, my precious little boy, spoke courage into my life... Several weeks ago, I told Caleb about DDB ceasing operations. He looked up at me and said “So, who will help people get out of debt? And just a few seconds later, after deep (for a 6yr old) thought he said: Mom, you can just make up your own company!” He doesn’t understand all the giants and walls that I now face, but he knows that with God, by all means, I will surely overcome them.

I don’t know what giants or walls you are facing in your life today, but even a 6yr old knows that with God, you CAN, by all means, surely overcome them.

I'm not so special...

In the wake of this new business venture, I am continually, just absolutely humbled by the amount of support we are receiving.   I can assure you that every single time I learn that God has used me to touch, change, or challenge someone’s life, it stirs up something wild inside me.  I cannot express to you the sense of overwhelming responsibility & excitement that I have to keep going…to keep helping people take control of their money.

It always amazes me that people actually take the time to listen to what I have to say or read my blog…at the end of the day, I’m just a mom who struggles to do the best she can for her kids.  I’m just a wife trying be the champion for her husband.  I’m just a friend trying to love those who will let me.  I’m just a coach trying to push people to do better.  I don’t have any distinctive qualities that make me better or more talented than anyone else – in fact, I feel like I actually lack some of the social qualities that it takes to “make it” in the business world.

Despite all of the commonness that entails me, I choose to serve a God who is everything that I am not, and more.  I believe that He has ordained my days.  I believe He gave me the exact qualities that He meant for me to have, so that I could fulfill the purpose that He set before me.  I believe that His plans for me are for my good.  I don’t expect my life to be easy, but I do believe that I can trust Him when life is hard, as well as when it’s good.  I trust that He is using me to do great things. 

I don’t think He has positioned me to change the financial world, but I am confident that He has gifted me to change the financial world of a few families.  I am praying to add 2 new families this month that  are looking to learn how to live in financial freedom.  I don’t have any tricks up my sleeve, but I can teach you how to roll your sleeves up, take control, and change your financial life.

"I am doing a great work..."

This is from my dear friend Marta's blog several years ago.  I shared this with a friend facing a tough decision, so I thought I'd share it with you as well.

 

I just finished listening to an amazing series of Podcasts. I downloaded Andy Stanley's message series, Discovering God's Will. Andy is the senior pastor of Northpoint Community Church in Alpharetta, GA. Evan and I have read several of his books and our small group has done several of his studies. (I highly recommend his book, The Best Question Ever.) I finished the last message in Discovering God's Will on Tuesday while I cleaned the house. It's not often that I get choked up while vacuuming, but that's what happened. Here are a few things that jumped out at me:

* He talked about Vision. His illustration was the picture on the box of a puzzle. Without that picture, it's hard to put the pieces together. In our lives when we ask God for that big picture vision (what is my marriage supposed to look like, what is my relationship with my kids supposed to look like, what are my finances supposed to look like, what are my friendships supposed to look like), it makes our day-to-day decision making much easier.

* He preached from a passage in Nehemiah. Nehemiah was hard at work on the walls of Jerusalem when his enemies sent letters requesting a meeting. Over and over he rejected them saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down." Meaning - "I have a vision for this project. I am focused on this and I will not let you distract me."

* Andy Stanley and his wife quote that verse (6:3) often as they decide what to do/what not to do; what to say yes to/what to say no to. Andy also shares a letter from a woman in his church that said no to an amazing job opportunity so she could focus on raising her daughter. When she said no to the job, she hung up the phone and said aloud, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down."

I got choked up as I listened because as much as I miss doing a job that I loved and I was good at, the time when Kate is young is short and I know, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down."

New Name, New Blog...what's going on?

Up until recently I have been doing business as Freedom Financial, and I was partnered with Dano's Debtbusters (DDB) as the company from which I offered most of my financial coaching products.  In December of 2012 I was informed that DDB was ceasing operations.  (You can read about that here:  http://thoughtsfromfreedomfinancial.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-happened-last-week.html  )

From that decision, I decided that I would continue to do what I was already doing.  Since that time I have continued to help the clients that I was already helping. After much consideration, I have chosen to legally change the name of my company.  L. Sweet Coaching will encompass all the services that I have offered previously, as well as some additional coaching services that I plan to offer in the future.  I decided to take "financial" out of the name becuase some of the future coaching services I plan to offer, are not financial services.

I have spent the last 6 months thinking through how my business would look.  The truth is, right now my family needs most of my time, and my new found love for Zumba takes up a lot of hours in a week as well.  What I still know is that God has called me to help people with their money, and as long as there is a family out there that needs my help, coaching them is what I'll do.  I don't intend to coach 20 families at a time, but I can take on a few more and still have the balance I need in my life.

Thank you for your continued love, prayers, and support of me, my family, and my business!