“Living on Love.” This was a phrase Mark and I often used during our first couple years of marriage. When we wed on July 11, 2009, he was a traveling consultant with IBM, living in Atlanta, GA. Our final day in Georgia was our wedding day. After our honeymoon, we headed to Coronado, California.
Mark’s degree is in industrial engineering and he was great at his job, but it was not fulfilling to him. He prayed about a career change into full-time ministry, but sensed God directing him to remain in the business world. I remember Mark holding out both his hands saying, “I wish I could mix business and ministry together” as he clasped his hands together.
Three months into marriage, he took a leap of faith and left his career in lieu of pursuing an opportunity to become a Chick-fil-A Owner/Operator (More on his story on Inside Scoop on Chick-fil-A). We wound up register by register, each making $10 per hour with a monthly rent check over $1400 for our modest apartment. With our expenses and fresh, sizable pay cut, we agreed we were living on love!
Previously, when we lived in Georgia, our pastor shared how he and his wife never had a financial argument because they “know where their money go.” He has a gift of giving a one-line take-away, even if it requires incorrect grammar! We took this advice to heart and applied it in our own marriage by having a regular budget meeting, discussing ahead of time any desired purchase over $25, and taking Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University class. These were practical ways we minimized financial stress in marriage, regardless of our income.
One of our friends in California is a Certified Financial Planner and we served together with her and her husband, Ryan, in a pre-marital ministry at our church. She taught us how to align our budget with our values. This became one of our most helpful financial practices of all time! (If you want to know this fabulous woman better, don’t miss her popular episodes: How to Align Your Finances with Your Values, Financial Wisdom, and Answering Common Financial Questions.)
We first did a value sort and realized community was in our top five values. We didn’t want our limited budget to impede opportunities to get together with friends, but we also valued staying out of debt, so we had to make trade-offs. We chose lower-budget options such as hosting potluck dinners or beach volleyball games and picnics at the park.
One of our favorite friends, Natalie, was having a birthday party soon and she invited us to be a part of a small group that went to dinner with her and her husband to celebrate her big day. All of our friends in this group made more money than us and the restaurant choice was a delicious, but expensive one. Still our decision was simple: the high value we placed on community inspired us to live on eggs and PBJs as we saved up money for this special occasion.
Her birthday evening was full of laughter and celebration and when it was time for the check to come, we discovered the meal had been covered. Here’s the crazy part: it was covered by the Birthday Girl!!! And she happens to be the Certified Financial Planner who taught us about values driving our budget and one of her top values happens to be generosity!
We were grateful recipients, and the awesome thing about generosity is that it’s contagious. She inspired us to look for ways to financially bless others and I hope that simply reading this story inspires you to financially meet the need of someone else too.
I believe the reason generosity is so powerful is because God is generous. The only part of the Bible I’m aware of Him inviting us to test Him is related to His generosity:
Malachi 3:10 (NIV) says,
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
So what about your marriage? Do you argue about finances or feel tension around the topic?
I want to send you a marital financial check-in with ten questions to discuss with your spouse so that you can grow in marital satisfaction and financial freedom with your spouse, regardless of your current financial state.
Make sure you join our email list before August 4th so that you can receive these ten helpful questions.
These ten questions can partner perfectly with your next quarterly meeting (If you don’t know what I mean by that, don’t miss these articles: Fun Monthly and Yearly Marital Enrichment Habits and Living Intentionally in Marriage: Quarterly Check-ins with Your Spouse). And one more resource you may find beneficial is Four Best Financial Tips I’ve Received.
I’m for you and your marriage and I can’t wait to see what conversation these questions spark between the two of you!
Enjoy,
Laura