Conservative With A Heart

When people start thinking about their debt, they are usually focused on their own future. Very few people understand how their own spending habits will affect the lives of their children. The truth is that your debt will put a burden on your children. The higher the debt, the more enslaved your children will become unless you learn how to break the debt curse and start NOW!

The problem is that children learn what they see. If they see you using credit cards, buying what ever you please and always getting more and more with out thought then that is the pattern of behavior they are likely to follow. If you think your financial situation is bad, then multiply it by ten and that is the direction you are sending your children.

It is possible to get your whole family back on the right track. It will take some communication, lots of honesty and a willingness to cut the fat!

1. Sit down with the whole family and discuss the financial place you are currently at and the financial goals that you want for the future.

2. Make a budget for all the necessities that you currently spend money on each month.

3. Put a limit on non-essential items and activities each month.


4. Set a savings goal for each month and work towards that goal as a family.

5. Teach the children the reality of the financial world. If they get an allowance then go ahead and begin taking “taxes” out of that money. It can go into a tax fund and the whole family can vote on how to spend that money each year.

6. Open a savings account for each of your children. Encourage them to do odd jobs for friends and family and to save a large portion of that money.

7. Think more about giving than about getting. Look at ways you can use your time, resources (including money) and energy to help the people around you.

8. Take care of what you have already. Keep the house and the car picked up and in order. Clean and straighten it daily. Show respect to the things that you have in your life.

The scary thing about debt is that it doesn’t just go away when you die. Everything you borrow and every charge you rack up will pass down to your children to sort out and pay. Not only do they inherit your debt, but your habits will teach your children the same habits.

If you want your children to live a life of freedom, then start teaching them today that they are enslaved by the people they owe. Debt is not a good way to live.

It was easy to sleep last night and I even went to bed early. My normal routine for elections is to stay up until the wee hours of morning to see what will be facing me for the next four years. This year I didn’t need to do that. My peace about the whole process is so perfect that I STILL don’t know who won the election.

I have a plaque that hung at my desk (where ever my desk might be) for many years. It was a little swallow on a branch: “I may not know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow.” It is with that knowledge that I went to sleep last night.

The outcome of the election was something that was not easy to miss this morning. I knew it would be there when any of my electronics turned on. Although it was not the results that I voted for, there is still hope for tomorrow. There is always hope.

It is time for me to make a change – not so much in the way THINGS are but in the way my heart is. I need to pour my positive thoughts and prayers over this country. One person can make a difference and I intend to be that person. Join me in this new direction and together we can heal this nation.

My Prayer for the Barack Obama and the Congress:

Lord, thank you so much for all that you have blessed me with. This is an amazing country with some of the greatest opportunities in the world. I thank you for the people of this country that come together to build what others only dare to dream.

Lord, thank you for the wisdom and strength that you have poured over Barack Obama. Continue to give him Your Peace in ways that he has never before experienced. Let the full blessings of your Grace come to him and his family and all that are around him.

Lord, thank you for the men and women that are willing to walk away from their ordinary lives to serve in congress. Continue to give them the knowledge and understanding that they need to make the decisions to push these United States into a glorious future.

Paul warned repeatedly through out scripture that the time is now. The time is now for me to get serious about the prayers for my country and my leaders. It’s not those people that have messed up, but I am the one that has dropped the ball. There has to be time in each and every day for me to hold up the government in prayer and thanksgiving.

Lord, please forgive me and my lack of support for the people that you have placed in these offices. The ways of the Lord confound the wise and I have thought myself wise for far too long. Forgive my arrogance and give me the words and consistency to humbly pray for Your servants.

Heath care is important to most families, but very few practice it in their lives. Most of us wait until there is a problem before we visit the doctor’s office (or worse – go to the hospital). Men are probably some of the worst culprits out there. If it was a car, I bet things would be different. Universal health care is NOT the answer. Personal responsibility is the only way to make health care work.

See, with our cars, the everyday wear and tear isn’t covered by insurance. If we don’t want to spend big money on new brakes, a new transmission, new tires, or a new automobile altogether, we take care of the car daily. We take it to have the oil changed. The tires get rotated and balanced. The water level is checked and maintained.

Our bodies aren’t nearly as lucky. We push them and abuse them until they call for a time out with colds or hurt muscles and joints or something worse. If we treated our cars this way, no one would expect the government to come in and make it better.

On the flip side of this issue are the medical care professionals. Many of the doctors in the system today are there because someone told them they were smart and this profession was a way to use that intelligence to make money. It’s not all about caring for their patients.

Some of them have even adjusted their care to what the insurance will and will not pay. If the insurance won’t pay extra for a follow up visit (and the doctor will have to “eat” the cost) then he just doesn’t schedule a follow up visit. It doesn’t matter what is best for the patient – it is all about the bottom line.

Keeping with the earlier analogy, if I take my car to the mechanic up the road, he will fiddle with the car until he gets it right (and he doesn’t charge me extra for the privilege of getting my car fixed). I had to search long and hard for this mechanic because they don’t all work to the same standard. But he gets all of my business, plus as much business and I can send his way.

I also looked long and hard for a doctor that would take time to talk with me about my concerns or needs instead of herding me through the office like a herd of cattle. If my insurance didn’t cover his practice then I would pay the extra to still go there. I want a doctor that is as concerned with preventing issues in my body as he is with getting my insurance money.

So what is the answer? Hilary Clinton recently released a health plan that requires everyone to have health insurance. This isn’t the answer. The answer is to take health insurance BACK to what it was intended to be (insurance against catastrophic costs) and pay for the rest ourselves. If people had to pay for emergency room visits, there would be less people in the waiting room with simple colds.

More government involvement will not help. Personal responsibility will be the only way we can fix the health care system in America.