Credit Score or A Good Name?

I've heard many say "I don't care about my credit."  There are different reasons why people would say that.  "It's a concept of the kingdom of this world", "you should not live by credit, so it's insignificant", "I'm a homemaker, so as long as my husband's is good, my doesn't make a difference",  "my credit is already bad anyways..."

We have been repeatedly having to make financial decisions based on this concept of having a good name.  A good name before God and man tells a lot about the kind of person we are.  The Word of God says, "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold" Proverbs 22:1.

Our credit score says a lot about who we are.  Are we responsible?  Are we reliable? Truthful? Honest? Trustworthy?  Careless? Psalm 37:21 says, "the wicked borrow and do not pay".

In the area where we live in, many people have defaulted on their mortgages, including us.  Many of these are because of loan modifications that people are waiting for to be approved.  The truth is that almost all don't and won't get approved.  In the mean time people have gotten so far behind their payments that they end up foreclosing on their properties.  We faced this similar scenerio.  But we had to always remind ourselves, "a good name is to be chosen rather than great reaches."  People would advise us to foreclose, even to file bankrupcy.  Just the thought of that would make me sick.   A foreclosure or a bankrupcy is tied to your name forever.  What kind of name do we want our children to inherit?  We fought this idea because it was unbiblical and we chose to walk the hard path in our financial mud pie.

Listening to the world's professionals unbiblical advise has costs us hundreds thousands of dollars.  We haven't had the courage to add up the loses yet.  But we will, I promise, someday, because it's such a life lesson.

4 Reasons why a good name is essential:

1. We represent God's name (2 Cor. 3:2)


2. We honor our parents by it (Ephesians 6:1-3, Proverbs 28:7)


3. We pass it on to our children (Proverbs 10:7)


4. We need it for business transactions,  a good credit score says a lot about you

Beware of Compromise!  Satan wants to destroy a man's name.

What are some of the things you can do to earn a good name?

• Be true to your word.  This includes to God as in marriage vows for example.  To your family and to others

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Education "by the way" for young learners

Deuteronomy 6:7 "...and you shall teach them diligently to your children.....when you walk by the way..."

Being gone through schooling all my years of school even through a teaching credetial program for the state of CA, I had been taught and conditioned that education is something to do rather than a way of life.   In my home education, a check list in my "to do list" would be something like "math", "read Bible" at a certain time.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with schedules or scheduling activities, many times it's the only way you'll get things done.  But the way we approach each task in our schedule has a lot to say about how motivated children will be at learning.

I've experienced that with young learners love to learn new things.  They will be life long learners when we make education a life style rather than a task or chore. 

At first I would say something like, "Lizbeth, it's time for our writing, or Bible reading."  At first she would eagerly engage.  The next day, I would get a response like "uuuugh, I don't want to do it."  Rather than seeing disobedience, she was trying to tell me that it wasn't interesting or exciting. 

Now, she would go through anything on my "to do list", but without knowing it and with a totally different attitude.  First, I know what interests her.  She likes to draw.  So I say something like, "Lizbeth, let's read this story and illustrate it."  Wow! What a different response.  She is then off showing her Bible illustration to everyone.  Then she would be playing about the story. 

Recently she did this with Dad.  They read about those who enter through the wide gate and the narrow gate.  They illustrated it.  She shared it excitedly with everyone in the house.  The next day I found her playing and she told be, "Mommy, look, these people are going through this wide gate and these little girl is going through the narrow gate."

Now reading and writing is done all day long too.   She would read a recipe as we bake something or write our shopping list or do some math with the recipe ingredients.  And there, reading, writing and math was done  on my schedule. 

Lizbeth has just turned six and almost everything she has learned now has been by living life day by day and seizing every opportinity and every question she asks to instruct her in the subject.   This really applies to almost everything to a young mind.  This way the Word of God is  being lived and applied before us all throughout the day.

This is essential for her, as she is developing a heart of wisdom, to view learning as an exciting never ending treasure.   If there is something that I think is of value for her to learn and she is not interested, then it's my job to make it interesting.  It always works.  In our house the word "boring" or "bored" is forbidden.  I tell my children that when your soul is asleep, you're almost always bored.  But awakens our soul so we can use our imagination and be creative in any circumstance.

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Why Home Education?

Our number one reason for home educating our children is that it is God's way of fulfilling the command of Deuteronomy 6. 

1. 
   
   We desire the best education for our children and that can only come from the Word of God.  Thus our main textbook is the Bible.


2. We pray for our children to gain a heart of wisdom.  That would only come from learning God's ways and not the wisdom of the world.


3. We have no time to waste.  Too much time is wasted sitting in classrooms listening to teachers trying to keep order in the class.  Education is far more than just academics.  We teach about life.


4. We are the primary responsible for our children so we need to discipline their actions.  We cannot do that if we don't know what they did or said all day.


5. We are the experts when it comes to our children because we know them best.  We know what they need and what they don't need.


6. Age-integrated teaching.  Children are not age segregated like in school.  The older ones will learn love, kindness and patience when it interacting and teaching the little ones.  The younger ones learn better and faster from the older ones.  No room for selfish attitudes or immaturity.


7. Nutritious, homemade food,  rather than cafeteria food.


8. No peer-presure, no humanistic teachings, unstructured


9. Go at our own pace


10. Te tell you the truth we just love being together and learning together about God and life all day.

The list goes on and on.....

Which other reasons do you have for home educating?

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Living Debt Free

We live in one of the most expensive areas of the United States.  People here believe is a way of life and totally normal to live in debt or at least have a home mortgage loan.  Most families have double income--that's husband and wife. 

We had been there and done that.  And have repented for not trusting God and for not following His principles concerning money.  We had always been very frugal and never had any debt other than a mortgage.  Once our first baby came I've stayed home and have not regret it. 

Where we live people like things.  You know, they like nice cars, subscriptions, nice big houses, a bout, an RV.... Is it like that where you live?

Proverbs 6 talks about debt as a very serious thing.  That's how we began to see it.  We had at that time two houses on mortgage.  My husband's business ran dry and are now 9 months with no income.  We sold our house and moved to our other one in the same area.  We are now selling this one too and believing God to live debt free.

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