A lifetime of debt does not equal a lifetime of happiness.
Yeah, I know, you’re sick and tired of me preaching that “debt is bad”; “stay away from debt”; “debt is temptation to spend more than you actually have”; and blah, blah, blah.
I get it, but seriously, debt is a trap. Debt traps you and keeps you from being able to carry out not only your plans, goals, and dreams, but also the plans that God has for you!
I’m going to go ahead and warn you that we’re about to get intense. And yes, we’re about to go biblical. I totally understand if the Bible isn’t your thing but regardless of your religious stance, I believe these few Bible verses are worth looking at in more depth…after all they’ve stood the test of time.
I actually created a .pdf file of this questionnaire if you’d like to keep it and print it out to dig a little deeper if your answers. Just fill in the boxes below and you’ll be able to download the .pdf!
Think for a moment on this from Proverbs 13:7….
“One man pretends to be rich but has nothing; another pretends to be poor but has great wealth.”
Now ask yourself:
- What do YOU think this verse means?
- How does debt allow YOU to live like you’re rich?
- How does having a large savings account make YOU feel?
- If you have debt, why is it that you incurred the debt(s) in the first place?
- If you were given a million dollars, would you be more likely to blow it on excess or save it?
Now here’s another verse from Proverbs 20:21…
“An inheritance gained prematurely will not be blessed ultimately.”
Ask yourself…
- What do YOU think is behind our fascination with gaining instant wealth?
- How does debt allow YOU to become instantly more “wealthy”?
- What is the true cost behind allowing debt to finance your “wealth”?
Alright now for one more from Proverbs 22:26-27
“Don’t be one of those who enter agreements, who put up security for loans. If you have no money to pay, even your bed will be taken from under you.”
Ask yourself…
- Is it wise to take out a loan for something when you have no money to pay it back?
- How often in our society are we told/sold to, to do this very thing (taking on debt for when we don’t have the money in our bank account to pay back the balance)?
- How does this verse make YOU feel?
- Isn’t it interesting that the Bible speaks about co-signing for someone else’s loan, or “put up security for loans”? What are YOUR feelings towards co-signing on loans for others?
Alright, now that we’ve had our little heart-to-heart, ask yourself one finally question – how is debt a trap?
I know that this may have been a challenging exercise for you because I know that before we became committed to this debt-free journey, we would have just rolled our eyes at this exercise. But I want to challenge you to take this whole exercise seriously.
Change starts with changing our mindsets about money. And I firmly believe that more we rely on debt the further away from successful money management we’ll be. The more “pretend rich” we’ll be and ultimately the less we’ll have.
Again, if you’d like to have this as a printable .pdf file to reference later, please fill in the boxes below and you’ll be able to download it!
What is a piece of encouraging advice that you can offer to someone still wrestling with changing their mindset about debt?
The post The Debt Trap. As presented in the book of Proverbs. appeared first on The Budget Mama.