Financial Struggles

It’s weird to me how the Devil reacts when he feels threatened. Have you ever noticed that when you’re doing something right –or Godly, something always goes wrong or an obstacle arises? Maybe you don’t even notice that you’re actually being attacked because of your decision to do God’s will. When I first got married, Hector and I prayed months before the Big Date…We wanted to put our future marriage in God’s hands and do His will, even if it meant not getting married, or even breaking up. We didn’t know what God had in store for us, but with every day that passed, we received more confirmation from God letting us know that we had found our soul mate.

Once we got married, the problems started. Not between us, because we absolutely loved each other. The problems that arose came from the outside, more like obstacles to our new life together. Hector was laid off work a little over a year after we got married; this was due to the atrocities of 9/11. Suddenly we were struggling financially. We were young and hadn’t made such great decisions on keeping our credit card debt low. We had a lot of credit card bills, yet we were still so defiant on not letting our credit score plunder. Eight months later Hector was called back to work. We were overjoyed and got back to our usual spending. We bought a flat screen TV, cars, furniture, CD’s, you name it. Then a few months later, he was laid off for the second time. We sunk back into the hole we had made for ourselves. We were drowning in bills. Going through this has really taught us about setting priorities and becoming spiritually mature. The time came when we wanted to move out of his parent’s guest house and finally have a home of our own but the real estate market at the time was booming and prices were way out of our range. We couldn’t afford anything. We then started praying about moving out of state. God where do You want us? We prayed and prayed, checked out different cities in four different states. Years passed and the financial ups and downs always lingered. Spiritually God was working with us really hard. We learned about respecting one another, being financially responsible, and about robbing God. We learned to always put every single decision in God’s hands, even the simplest decisions like buying a car or going to school. We started putting God’s will first.

In 2005, our first child was born in September…Jacob. We had even prayed about when it was the best time to have children. Everyone has different opinions on when a couple should have kids. Some say right away! Others say two years, three years, etc. All we heard was blah, blah, blah. We knew that God had a plan for us and only He would put it in our hearts on when the time was perfect for us to responsibly bring a child into this world. We had decided we were financially stable to have a child and had had plenty of alone time with one another that we could finally make some room for a little one to love. After Jacob was born we decided to move to Houston Texas. Never did we ever see ourselves in Texas. Texas! We were able to buy our first home, and I had found a job before even moving out there. Hector would commute from LAX airport every week and the plans were set. After a while of commuting from LA to Houston every week, we found that being apart as a young married couple with a small child was not what God had intended for us for the long haul. We decided to sell our home and invest in a small LA business.

We always knew that through the struggles, God’s plan was working in our lives. He made it all happen and He opened the necessary doors to constantly prove it to us. With all the profit from the sale of our beautiful home in Texas gone to the uprising of the small business, we were again getting lost in financial debt. What are we gonna do now? Then I found out I was pregnant. I was going to bring another child into this world and we hadn’t even prepared for her. We stretched our dollar as far as it could go and through it, God worked miraculously. Every month, when the bills came for the Shop and our living expenses, God provided. Somehow, a car showed up at the Collision Center that needed to be repaired, and every penny earned was just enough to go on to the next month. God still shows us every day that our lives and the struggles we’ve gone through are not in vain. The puzzle to His master plan is slowly coming together. So we’re constantly living by faith, not by sight. Problems arise, but via those problems God always shows His power. Always. I feel that God is constantly telling us to be faithful with our money and He proves Himself to us every single day. He has NEVER let us down, not like man. But then again, He’s shown us that even though we might get disappointed with man, time and time again…God never fails us. We’ve been married now almost 9 years, love each other very much and have grown soooo much…although I know, there’s still so much more to learn. A doctor I use to work for use to describe his life as a Chinese curse once said, ‘May your life be interesting’.

“The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, IF you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 30: 9-10

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.” Proverbs 3:11-12