FINANCIAL STABILITY
Are You a Stress Spender?
CBN.com
– "Now we have no mortgage, no car payment, no credit card
bills, and we are 100 percent debt free. Praise God! We’re excited,"
says a very happy Lori Young.
How did Lori and Clifton Young end up totally debt free? They didn't
win the lottery or hit it big in Las Vegas, so how did they beat the
odds and find a financial strategy that works?
 When
it comes to money, they can certainly tell you what didn’t
work. Throughout their marriage, Lori had a habit of overspending.
Every time she had an emotional need she filled it by shopping.
If she couldn’t afford it, she just charged it.
"It was idolatry," says Lori. "What I was doing was idolatry. I didn’t
repent because it was no big deal. I was in sin because I was trusting
that. I made those cards my god over God."
Lori’s spending sprees continually put the family on a financial
roller coaster, and it caused marital friction.
"I was getting all this overtime," Clifton says, "and I’d just
look at my overtime check and—whoosh! —it’s like why work myself
into an early grave? It’s not accomplishing anything. I started
writing out the bills, and all of a sudden, all the bills are done and
then she’d come in with 'here’s the credit cards.' I would
look at the credit cards, and by the time I got finished paying all
the credit cards off, it was like I had no money left. "
Says Lori, "You can have $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, and they only want
$26 from you. It doesn’t seem like it’s a problem. You forget
that the interest is there, and it’s building, it’s compounding,
it’s growing."
All the while Lori was a regular viewer of The 700 Club online,
and she found the stories about managing money interesting. Even though
her spending was out of control, she really had a heart to give.
 "I
remember the first time we tithed, the first thing she did was
the tithe check before anything else—before the mortgage, before
anything," adds Clifton. "She’d say, 'OK, God is first.'
She said, 'We need to give to The 700 Club.' I said, 'That’s
a good idea. I think we should too.' And we started giving to
The 700 Club."
Lori and Clifton believed in the Law of Reciprocity, but they had never
practiced it before. It wasn't easy at first. Lori says that
in spite of their decision to give, she continued to over spend!
"I started crying out to the Lord, 'This has got to change. What
is wrong with me, not my husband, not anybody—me!'
says Lori. "I’d go online and watch The 700 Club,
and on the front page this particular day, there was a financial
boot camp. The first paragraph was talking about giving ownership
over to God. I turned off the program, got up, walked back to
my room, and on the way to my room down the hall, I hear God say,
'Cut them up.' My response is 'Cut them up?!' I grabbed the scissors
and I started to cry, because in looking at that, it really came
to me that 'I trust these cards, God. I know it seems really simple,
but I relied on them, not on the Lord. So I took the cards nonetheless
and I cut them up into tiny, tiny pieces. I repented and just
really asked the Lord to forgive me for not trusting Him."
 About
two weeks later something miraculous happened. Lori’s mom
had inherited a home from Lori’s grandmother. but it needed
some "fixing up" in order to sell. It was too much work
for Lori's mom, so she decided to give the house to Lori and Clifton!
So Lori and Clifton sold their home and used the equity in it
to fix up the new house and pay off all outstanding debts. It
was their brand new start—totally debt free!
"No mortgage, no car payment, no credit cards. We owe no one. Now we’re
free to give more to the ministry and to extend more, maybe help those
who are less fortunate than we are because God has totally blessed us,"
Clifton explains.
Repentance and putting into practice biblical truths they learned on The 700 Club turned Lori and Clifton's life around! It can turn your life around, too. Join with CBN now and help provide biblical answers and the gospel to thousands of people every day through The 700 Club. You will also help feed and clothe children here and abroad, provide medical care to those who are hurting, and help keep The 700 Club Prayer Counseling Center phone lines operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please join today!
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