From Debt Ridden to Debt Free
(By Jason Weening)
Jason and Alli have been married for 20 years. Jason speaks to dads and moms encouraging them to be intentional in their most important organization—their family! In 2024 he released a fiction adventure book for kids, Danger in the Jungle. He just released his second book, “Yes, Dear...I’m Watching Them: Stories of Injury & Adventure from the Frontlines of Dadhood.” He co-hosts the Helping Men Thrive podcast and supervises the care of hens, ducks, cows and vegetables on their small hobby farm in Saskatchewan. Find Jason at heydads.ca.
I know what it’s like to be married with kids and have to ask my parents to borrow money. I know what it’s like to have my wife in line at the grocery store and none of the bank cards work. I know what it’s like to have more month left at the end of the money. It’s not fun. I remember the first time I shared this story at a men’s Bible study around 2019. It’s tough to talk about our own mistakes but hopefully it will encourage you! Revelation 12:11 says that we overcome by the “word of our testimony.” Even though this isn’t my salvation testimony, I hope it will provide encouragement to someone who may be feeling like they’re in a hopeless financial situation. I pray you would overcome!
A few years ago, when we only had nine kids, my friend Scott sent me an article from the satirical website, The Babylon Bee – Fake News You Can Trust. The title of the article was, “Mormon Family Proud OINKS (One Income, Nine Kids)”. The article wasn’t about us. We do have nine kids but we aren’t Mormons. It was a sarcastic play on the economic term, DINK: Dual Income, No Kids. It pointed out some of the obvious differences between an OINK family and a DINK family, one of those differences being large tubs of Costco peanut butter.
It looks like the DINK couples should be surviving fine in this world of inflation and spiraling costs. But what about those of us who have decided to reproduce and multiply? Our costs are reproducing and multiplying too!
Early on in our married life we had some tough times but thanks to God’s provision and making small changes over time we were able to dig ourselves out of the deep hole of debt. You’ve probably heard Proverbs 22:7, “The borrower is servant to the lender.” Some versions even say slave. I remember visiting close relatives who I owed money to. Though they never brought it up I would think about that debt numerous times throughout our visits. It hung over my head like I was in servitude to them. Because I was. But there was hope.
At the time I was working in a commission-paying job but it wasn’t going well. There would be good months and bad months. After a bad month I would hope that the next month would be better but they didn’t get better. You can only have so many bad months in a row before you start to get into financial trouble. For me, the trouble began with using the credit cards when there wasn’t enough income coming in. It got so bad that when we didn’t have money to pay the mortgage, I’d use the credit card. Until the cards were maxed out. Then I missed my mortgage payments. You don’t need to be a financial guru to see the foolishness of this system! Proverbs 26:11 comes to mind where it says that a fool repeats his foolishness like a dog returns to its vomit. Yikes.
I started working in our family business around this time and we began the journey of digging out of the hole we were in. I also got another part-time job as a youth pastor to help tackle this task. I picked up Dave Ramsey’s book, The Total Money Makeover, at a thrift store. I didn’t have enough money to buy a new copy! We began to implement some of the ideas in his book. He talks about taking baby steps to change your financial situation. The first ‘baby step’ is to save $1,000 cash. $1,000 will cover a lot of emergencies. The concept is that if you have $1,000 you won’t need to use Visa or MasterCard. If the washing machine blows up, you can buy a new one. If the car needs a fix, it can cover a lot of repairs. So, we did it. It’s amazing what freedom came from having that cash on hand. The peace of mind knowing that we could pay for most problems that came up was reassuring.
Some people think that saving the cash isn’t as important as paying off the debt. I’m not here to argue about that because it worked for us. And we had a small win under our belts to celebrate. Now we could start tackling the debt. This was baby step number 2.
Paying off the debt was strategic. It’s called the snowball method and it starts with paying off the lowest balance first and paying only the minimum payments on everything else. Soon after saving the $1,000 we were able to pay off a $1,000 credit card. Boom. That got a monthly payment off our plate. And it was another win. We now took our monthly payment from that card and any extra we had to tackle the next highest credit card. And on down the line. Over a period of a few years, we were able to pay off all our debt outside of our mortgage. But it wasn’t always easy; there were sacrifices to be made.
Thankfully, God blessed me with a patient and understanding wife. She tells a story about when we were in the middle of this pursuit to pay off all our debt. One day she was finishing up some errands in town and drove by a Tim Hortons. She really wanted to head over to the drive-thru to pick up a tea but she refused to spend the couple dollars because we were laser-focused on paying off debt.
I remember God providing in unexpected ways through those years. We needed new shingles for our roof and didn’t have the money for it. I could do the work but we still needed the shingles. One day someone (we still don’t know who it was) dropped an envelope in our mailbox with $700 in it and a note that said, “To help you fix your roof.” God provided. Even in our foolishness and mistakes we have a loving Father that is watching over us. He cares for us!
I’ve been in church services and heard missionaries or people in ‘full-time ministry’ tell stories about how God provided for them. But God doesn’t just provide for people in ministry. He provides for regular guys like you and me, too. I believe we’re all in ministry, not just pastors and missionaries. If you’re in sales or an electrician or a teacher or a software engineer or a business owner or a farmer God wants to provide for you and God wants you to use your sphere of influence to bless the world and to be a ‘minister’ to those around you.
Here’s an example of how God may want to use you in your place of work. When I was a shop foreman in our family business, we had a welder that worked for us. He didn’t go to church. He went to biker rallies. He didn’t read a Bible. He read motorcycle magazines. He didn’t know Jesus. But he knew me. I met him at a gas station one day and he was telling me about some things going on in his life. The Holy Spirit seemed to be nudging me to ask him if I could pray for him. I delayed asking for a few minutes but eventually I did ask him. And what do you think he said? He said, “Yes.” So, I took a few minutes and prayed for him outside in the parking lot of a gas station. God had put us together in that situation at that time and provided an opportunity for ministry to that welder.
Here’s the point of that story. My welder friend wasn’t going to talk to my pastor at church. My pastor didn’t know this guy. My pastor wasn’t going to meet him and pray for him. There are people in our lives that may not ever walk through the doors of a church. But they walk through the door at work with us every day.
Maybe there’s someone in your shop, your office, a supplier, a customer, a team member, (maybe even a competitor!) that God wants you to pray for. It could be after work, on a work trip, at a gas station, or somewhere else. When I’ve had opportunities to ask someone if I could pray for them, they usually say ‘yes.’ Actually, I do remember one person who said, “No, I’m good,” but that doesn’t happen very often! I encourage you to be sensitive to those nudges when God is leading you to step out of your comfort zone.
In Genesis 12:3 God tells Abraham that, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” I want God to use you and your family and me and my family to be a blessing to those around us. He can use you to provide a blessing to someone else. It could be in your workplace. It could be your next-door neighbour. It could be other parents watching their kids play at the arena or baseball diamond. I encourage you to be alert to those times when you can bless someone else.
This morning, I was outside letting our hens out of their coop. I’ve got some things on my mind that I’m worrying about. I know we’re not supposed to worry but sometimes I do. Sometimes it’s work related or family related or money related. As I was walking through the yard I was praying and casting all my cares upon Him, for He cares for me as 1 Peter 5:7 says. Maybe you’ve got financial cares to cast on him, maybe you’ve got marriage cares or parenting cares or health cares or career cares. I encourage you to cast your cares on Him. There is hope! He cares for you.
