Knowledge #2

In your journal, list talents you have and others you'd like to develop. Reach Matthew 25:14-30. Learn a new skill or talent that will help you care for your future family or home. Share with your family, class or YW leader what you learned.

Current Talents

• Planning
• Cooking
• Time management
• Multi-tasking
• Teaching
• Child care
• Leadership

Talents I'd like to develop

• Playing the piano better
• Budgeting
• Sewing
• Canning

I worked on budgeting. This has been a work in progress for me. Before I got married, I'd never balanced a checkbook. I kept a "running total" in my head. I also had a lot of parental support and a strong safety net. This was useful, but not helpful in my developing a skill set to live independently. If I made a poor choice, I was usually bailed out. I never felt the repercussions of poor money management.

When I got married and suddenly had to consider our family's budget, learning to be disciplined was hard. It was like learning about gravity and cement by jumping out of a car going 35 mph. There was a lot of road rash.

I've learned many things as I've learned to keep track of our/my money. This is just one of those things.

Whether we like it or not, budgeting is a huge part of our happiness. It's like following any other set of rules: we can either embrace them and enjoy their protection or we can fight against them and see them as limitation. However, following the rules is actually very liberating. You will find that if you stick with the guidelines you are given, you will feel less anxiety, stress and worry. You will have peace of heart and mind.

This is how a budget can be a positive thing in your life. You will not worry about tomorrow, feeding your family, or if you'll survive to the next paycheck. If you stay within in your budget, you will not feel the constant nagging of debt. You won't have your life controlled by this unseen force. It won't occupy your thoughts and time. You won't spend your days trying to figure out how to juggle the finances.

If you have a clear budget, and stick with it, you will always know where you stand with your money. You can make decisions much more easily. Yes, I can afford it or No, I can't. It really can be that simple. This doesn't mean you can't have the fun stuff. You just simply put what you can reasonably afford into your budget and stay with that amount. One of the great things is that you can re-visit your budget and make changes if something isn't working out. It's a pretty flexible thing if you get to know it.

Just as with living the commandments, many people try to live live in the "grey". They try to straddle the line that divides obedience and "being cool" or in the world. I've learned that living in the grey is a tough thing to do and will always make you question yourself. It's frustrating to feel like you're making excuses for your choices and always pushing against the boundaries. Often, you end up slipping and on the side that isn't in your favor.

Rather, I choose to be black and white on many issues. Some would like to tell you it isn't that simple, but it is. You either do or your don't. You have the dollars, or you don't. You can make excuses for breaking your budget, but there isn't really any reason to forfeit your own goals and rules. There really isn't anything so worth squandering what you've worked so hard to achieve. It does take some sacrifice and discipline. Neither of these is always comfortable or easily lived through. But, if you give it a try, you will greatly blessed. You will also quickly gain a testimony of the blessings of living within the bounds you have set for yourself.