Break The Cycle - Money

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV 

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

Money and I have never been the best of friends. I remember in secondary school when my dad would give me lunch money each week (£10), and my mum would tell me save at least £2 a week. It never happened. My mum had always (and still does) lecture me about the importance of saving. I never really understood it. Until now. 

money - the assets, property, and resources owned by someone or something.

The cycle continued with struggling to save. College came and I was lucky enough to get £20 a week EMA - still didn't save a penny. So I thought, 'why not get a job?' got a job, got a bit better with money but shortly after leaving the job due to exams, I had nothing to show for those hours. Still relying on parents for pocket money which wasn't much of an issue as by this point I was 17. The summer before going to uni, I got a part time job after coming back from holiday, waiting for payday was so, so painful. I had to sometimes cancel plans with friends as I literally couldn't even afford going to the cinema, let alone pay for a meal at nando's. I would starve during work and run home after to cook, eat, and sleep. That cycle became so repetitive and tedious.

As university was constantly on my mind at this point, I knew that this would be the start of better management with time, and money! At this point the idea of money, looking after it, and spending it, wasn't a big worry or something that I read about a lot. Money should never have control over my life and never will.

Whilst starting university I came over this beautiful verse that set so much in stone, I meditate over it a lot since then:

Hebrews 13:5 NIV

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.

I never have and never will worship money. I was good at handling it, I just couldn't save. Within weeks it would be gone. Then overdraft happened. Student accounts and overdraft = drama! Why on earth did I begin spending money I didn't have? Minus £400 then turned into minus £800, then £1000 overdrawn. No one around me other than my family knew that I wasn't the best with saving - and I didn't always see it as a problem being so overdrawn as I promised myself to bring the account up to + on my next payday/student finance installment.

It happened, then the cycle repeated itself. Over and over, and over again. 

Matthew 6:24 ESV 

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

I am a big believer in giving, I've been donating to my favourite charities for each month 2+ years and always put others before myself. However, charity begins at home!

I am now 21, in a full-time job position I love, and have decided to BREAK THE CYCLE! No matter how much money you have, you can still fall short to self-discipline. It took 4 years to realise that money will NEVER have power over you, YOU have the power; the power to stop this continuous cycle that God forbid will one day run you into the ground. God has taught me to place love over unmateralistic things that do have lasting value, to be thankful, to give even when I'm not fully able, and to be on top of things of the world that I do have control over!

Luke 12:33-34 ESV 

Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

God has instilled the power within me to use my initiative when handling certain possessions. Don't ever let things of the world run you into the ground. Break the repetitive cycle.

Written by Hannah