Finding Focus

This week was my turn on She Seeks. If you are checking in after reading my post, WELCOME! If you haven't had a chance to read {i heart the skinny mirror} please go check it out.

Over the last month, I've posted a series titled One Sister to Another. Just some of my thoughts base off of past experience in hopes to encourage my girlfriends not to make the same mistakes I've made. You know that phrase "been there, done that, got the t-shirt?" Well, friend, I feel I've been there, done that and got the not so cute t-shirt! :) I wear it proudly {as my past has shaped in part who I am presently} but would hate for you to have to.

So, take a few minutes to read some of these posts and let me know your thoughts...

One Sister to Another

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Money and the Four Letter Word

DEBT. An ugly word. You are not alone if you find yourself uttering this four letter word.

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”( Matthew 6:24)

This is Jesus speaking to his disciples and directly to you and me about the love of money and elevating it to a place in our heart higher than Him. Quite a dangerous place to be, according to him. Often times, with the love of money, comes the shackles of debt.

Maybe you find yourself in a similar spot as Heather. ( I found this in a news story)

"Heather Schopp is a chiropractor in California dealing every day with her clients' physical pain. But her own pain is financial: At age 29 she is more than $170,000 in debt.

"I think about it every day," Schopp says. "I mean, I lay in bed, thinking in my head, 'Okay, how much money do I have? What will I have to do tomorrow? Do I have to buy anything?' "

Schopp is part of the exploding number of young women who are rapidly turning into "Generation Debt." These twenty-somethings are weighed down by hundreds of thousands of dollars of credit card bills and student loans.

Schopp works two jobs, six days a week, just to make ends meet and keep pace with her debt, but it is still not enough."

There is no amount of debt that Jesus can not handle. Jesus actually says in the book of Luke that there is nothing that is impossible for God. (see Luke 1:37)

Take a look back at the verse above from Matthew 6:24. It is actually the love and worship of money that leads to debt. The greek word for “serve” in this passage is “douleuo” which has an undertone of “being in bondage to, to be a slave to” money. Ouch! Before we fall into times of debt, we often become servants of money. Whatever your present financial circumstance, I encourage you to find financial counseling and work diligently to pay down this debt as soon as possible. The longer we are in bondage to money, the more obsessed we become and less focused on worship our King, the One who takes away our bondage.

In fact lets start now with a short exercise to examine our spending habits. We can take small steps in changing our habits that will make a big impact on our debt.

Make a list of the top five purchases that you would call guilty pleasures, or unnecessary to every day living. Beside the item, write the approximate number of times you purchase this item over four months. Then, write down the approximate dollar amount of each item.

Here is my list:

Cheap PINK Shiny Lipgloss: 3 times, $8.00 each

Coffee from coffee shop: 10 times, $5.00 each

Books, Books and more books: 4 times, $15.00 each

Quarts of Ben&Jerry’s Icecream: 8 times, $6.00

Cute, funky, cheap shoes or jewelry: 10, $19.00

Your list might consist of many different types of things like makeup, videos, iTunes or extra trips out to dinner. As long as they are not necessities, these items qualify to go on the list. Now, multiply each item by the number of times you purchase and then add it all up for your grand guilty pleasure total.

Over the course of four months my grand guilty pleasure total is $372!!!

Yikes, over the course of a year, I spend about $1,488 on stuff that doesn’t fill that momentary void of emotional spending. Can you imagine if we made a list of all the items on our guilty pleasure list?!

When we worship Him instead of money paying down the debt becomes easier. I would venture to say that $1,488 would make a nice dent in a long standing credit card bill or a student loan. Going forward, lets rethink our need to purchase and redirect that need toward worshipping our God. Nothing is impossible for Him...nothing.

So tell me. What was your grand guilty pleasure total? How can you use that extra money to pay off some bill or loans?

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Hair Identity

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One Sister to Another Part 3-It's Just Business

This is part one of a series of ideas I want to share from my PAST experience. I’m a girlfriend who wants to share so that you, my friends, might learn from me rather than deal with the heartache yourself.

I've been in the corporate world for going on eight years now and I've learned a few things along the way:

How to apply the long last lipstick that will get me through a day's worth of sales calls.

How to apply the right amount of self tanner to look like I'm wearing panty hose when I'm actually not.

How to apply said tanner sans streaking so the "panty hose" look real.

How to close the sale before they realize I'm actually closing the sale.

How to look cute and smile while still coming across as professional.

But the biggest lesson I have learned is that ITS JUST BUSINESS.

The coporate world is full of self promoters who scratch their way up the career ladder. I have witnessed my share of those who broadcast their wins loud enough for their boss's boss's boss to hear. I have also witnessed my share of those who distort the magnitude of their latest project to plump up their end of year review. To be honest, I know these people are rewarded and I'm not going to say they probably don't deserve it either. But at what cost?

The cost of self promotion for me is the extra energy it takes to make known my accomplishments when frankly, they speak for themselves. The cost of poking my head out to play Nosey McNoserson while investigating my coworker's latest and greatest for the only outcome of doing it better myself is just too tiring. How do I know this? I've been there. It got me nowhere.

A friend of mine told m something a year ago I've applied to my corporate job. She advised me to "keep my head down, work hard and God will recognize me as He sees fit."

Keep my head down.

Work hard on the task at hand.

Don't worry about what everyone else is doing.

God will bless it.

Just as Jesus said He was about His Father's business in Luke 2:49 You too are about your Father's business in the corporate world. A true success that I believe God honors is when we focus on what we can do at that moment and do it with excellence. The business world is full of fakers, so being about your Father's business with authenticity, honesty and humility already sets you up to navigate the career path with success.

Keep your head down, sister!

Lets brainstorm together and come up with ways to be successful at work with out the draining act of self promotion. What are some ways that you are about your Father's business and stay focused on the task at hand rather than your office mate's win at work?

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