Don't Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle!

     What a year 2017 has been ! Mine has been up and down like a yo-yo but with victories being prevalent I’ve decided that this is life for now, not forever. If getting those victories means I have to deal with different problems for awhile then everything is working out for the better. Momentum might just get me a homer. Well, it’s easier to go with that rather than focus on bad stuff which will eventually just work itself out, anyway. My mother’s influence was always positive and she very seldom became unhinged over anything. Positive thinking and living is the better way. Also, Mom always said, “Whatever everyone else does- you do the right thing, anyway.”

     My greatest victory this year was defeating debt that looked impossible to surmount through 2015 and 2016. That is a big sigh of relief you just heard in the background. My rule of thumb has been never to get into more debt than you can pay off on any given month. It may sound strange to some but building credit is just as important as clearing the deck of finances. Having a good credit rating is akin to having those lines of credit with the bank. Those are good to have but generally a bit low especially for the needs of an average homeowner today. If you wanted to start a business, would you be able to finance it with the type of credit that is available to you?

     I have had clients tell me they have filed bankruptcies with a gleam in their eyes like they got away with something. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Just wait until they desperately need a loan or have to do something drastic like mortgage their house because of an emergency! The perceived risk factor by the potential creditor may put you into such a high interest rate that it could put you in the red for the rest of your life. And that’s if you get such a break because bankruptcies are usually anathema to creditors. Any credit counselor will tell you that because it’s true.

     There is no worse feeling than knowing that you worked as hard as you could only to find that because you made bad financial decisions there is no way out of a rut. I can certainly testify to that because I have spent most of my life literally working on clients hand and foot! The only creditor who will esteem your hard work is yourself- i.e. do you give yourself credit? - and maybe a friend or two. So your financial decisions are crucial to your life and livelihood in the long term. You may win the PCH sweepstakes but if you make financial decisions based on those suppositions you could really get yourself in a bind. You may as well gamble with loaded dice in Vegas!

      Being realistic, prioritizing the needs from the wants and plain old budgeting will back up your hard-earned cash. Being thrifty, couponing and going for the discounts on your i-phone also help but if you put too much or too little on your credit card you’re missing out on the best way to get control of your finances in a very real way. Only multimillionaires and billionaires can spend money like there’s no tomorrow. All those making $12,000 or less per year better learn their math and how to budget especially if you’ve started to spend money in an adult fashion. Your future financial status depends on it.

The Castle Lady

Surrendering to God

 

  It's amazing what can truly happen,

how your life can be so grand;

when you give up trying on your own,

and let an angel hold your hand.

-Unknown

     Have you ever tried to make something happen that has been deemed by everybody to be impossible? If you have never taken on a challenge undaunted then I propose that you must do this as soon as you feel you have it within you not to give up. You'll have to go beyond passion, which everybody is so fond of calling it nowadays and go right into absolute obsession. That is where your fondest dreams lie. It is the hope you never give up and the quest you hold onto when everything else seems to fall by the wayside. Human beings were constructed for the non-surrendering life. Our brains are wired with the desire to solve even the most difficult problems. People's potential for achievement is unlimited according to tests which have been carried on for decades by teachers, scientists and neurosurgeons. If you read books by authors like Norman Vincent Peale, Earl Nightingale or Nancy and Sheila Ostrander you can get a sense of your personal power and what it takes to live up to your full potential. Human experience alone shows and tells us that all this is true.

     As children we struggle through some of our problems trying to solve challenges alone or figure out our own ways of dealing with difficulties. New math, when it was introduced mid-20th century in schools had parents scratching their heads and the children wondering where to look for the answers they needed. The old math was easier to convey to children by parents but new math was introduced to make math easier. None of the old, hard ways would help them write out equations correctly and so the children were left to figure it out on their own. It may have been a blessing in disguise. Educators started talking about independent thinkers shortly after the introduction so it was best to part with the old- even as parents watched helplessly while their children struggled through homework problems by themselves.  

     We are like this also as adults but more so. Our thinking becomes more set in certain ways of thinking or dealing with problems and difficulties. Often, we find that those ways no longer solve the issues we face in the real world. Tried and true is almost an anomaly, ironically, in today's fast hi-tech, (so-called) high touch and change-is-good philosophy and if you don't move right along with the current hit-and-run technology and strategies you can be left in the dust wondering how to handle challenges in the old way. Even I sometimes long for days when many aspects of life were a whole lot simpler or at least, not as complex.

     Change is not necessarily good but it is inevitable. A current popular quote supports this idea:

          "As a job seeker, remember this: You only lack experience if they want it done the same old way." - Robert Brault

     There is a certain type of wisdom in that which is refreshing and welcomed because long-term problems such as economics, ecology, energy and substance depletion, pollution and toxic waste continue to hamper modern life. Our stubbornness in continuing to do everything as if it is working- when it's obvious it is not- created many of these problems and they won't be resolved or at least tackled until we admit that changes are inevitable and imperative.

     In God's Kingdom, change is also inevitable, irreversible and eventually required. Repentance, in its direct form, is basically changing your independent mind and habits to being more dependent on God and what is laid out in the holy scriptures. The Bible is indeed our 'set of instructions' for everything from dealing with jealousy to breaking bad habits along with being freed from the slavery of sin. God is not out to change who you are- that wouldn't make sense since God created you. He wants you to change your stubborn attitudes, to make better choices in life and proclaim that His way really is the best way to do everything.

     Back in the 70s there was a song which was made very popular by the Carpenters titled, Love is Surrender. I'll let it play out here the way it was written by Ralph Carmichael:

The Castle Lady