...and my diamond shoes are too tight!

There was this episode of Friends once where one of the guys had 2 girls that liked him and he was fretting over this bad situation. Then Chandler, the guy who jokes about everything sarcastically said something like "Oh no! Two women like me! They are both beautiful! My wallet is too small for all my fifties and my diamond shoes are too tight!" I always get a kick out of that line.

The last couple of weeks my wife and I have had an interesting "problem"....which isn't a problem at all its just unusual for us.

My family sold some land and we were blessed with a tidy sum of money. Not huge by any stretch but tidy nonetheless. We aren't able to retire to the Bahamas or even go out and buy a nice used car....but it's been a blessing we have enjoyed!

With this money we have been able to attack our debt and also get some much needed items...most were needs (such as new vacuum cleaner, new stove, long overdue car repairs and new clothes) and some were wants (such as a new video camera, some DVDs, some camera equipment).

Sure we could have attacked more debt and spent less on fun things but I'm of the mindset that while attacking debt is the most important thing we can do in our family, if all you ever do is work, work, work and don't have a little fun, you will lose site of why you are working. However, after paying our tithe, we paid off debt before we spent a dime on anything else. Either way, that's not the point of this.

In addition to this money, we also will have our income tax money coming back soon. It will be, again, a tidy sum. Less than the first sum but still very nice by our standards. We have a specific debt in mind for that one...and possibly a mini-vacation.

We are in a curious situation with this because usually we have an extremely tight budget. Right now we "have more money than we know what to do with" so to speak. Which, finally, brings me to my point in all of this.

I used to think that hard times are the easiest times to rely on your self and to put God on a shelf. In this time I've seen that when things are good, its also easy to forget where everything good comes from. Money is just a tool. It's nice to have, and you do need a certain amount to live in an economy based world...but I've found how important it is to remember that all I have-money, cameras, cars, washers, houses, health, breath...all I have belongs to God.

Currently Listening To: Punch and Judy by Elliot Smith

(Rest In Peace, Larry Norman)

Later On, Further Out,
Chris Cummings