Building Financial Confidence

In this episode of the Rise & Build Podcast, Karen Gurley shares wisdom from her own journey of learning to build confidence in finances. From the challenges of living paycheck to paycheck to tackling debt head-on, she offers practical advice and heartfelt encouragement. Together, we take a deeper look at the difference between needs and wants—and how making those distinctions can open the door to financial freedom and peace of mind.

For more Aha Moments visit https://buildingallchildren.org/podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Welcome! My name is Kendra Morgan, and I'm the host of the Rise and Build Podcast, where we hope to empower you to rise up and build a strong family, knowing you have to strengthen your hands to do the good work. Come with us as we rise and build. Hey you guys, and welcome to the Rise and Build Podcast. Today is gonna look a little different, but I'm very excited. I am setting across from Karen Gurley, and she is gonna introduce herself so that you guys can get to know her. But today we are actually talking about finances. And the title of this is Building Um Confidence in Your Finances. So when you hear the word finances, if you are anything like me, you are ready to stop this, turn it off, move away from it. I get it. I am not a number person. Um I married someone that's a number person, and I'm thankful for that. But this is something that you guys want to hear. Um, and I we prayed and prayed and prayed about this, and as we were praying about it, I knew Karen was perfect. I want you to hear her story. I want you to hear her heart, and I'm pretty confident that the advice she's gonna give today, um, if you apply it, could change your life. So, Karen, tell us about you.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I'm married to this wonderful man. We have a blended family. I together we have five grandchildren and six children. So we have a pretty busy life.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

Yeah, you guys have a lot of kids, a lot of moving parts. Yes. Perfect. Well, Karen, when we brought this topic up, um, I feel like it's it's a private topic. A lot of people don't want to talk about their finances. Um, but we also know um that 40% of marriages that end up in divorce have, I mean, it's because of finances. It's a big, big deal. And building all children um through our Ryzen Build podcast, we just did a whole series on marriage. And so through the that series, we kept kind of the finances kept coming up. And so as the team was praying about it, you are the one that came to mind. Um, and so do you feel comfortable sharing a little bit of your personal story with us?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Sure. It's it's really my why. So I'm gonna go. So I grew up in a small town in upstate New York. My dad left when I was six months old, so my mom raised us. We barely had enough, but when I was young, I didn't even know it because my grandparents and my mom just their love filled the gap. As I aged, obviously, it became more apparent. Fast forward, I was married to a doctor, had three beautiful children, was a stay-home mom by choice, and to everybody on the outside, I had this great life. But the real story is my husband was struggling with addiction, our marriage was falling apart, and it definitely affected everyone involved. After 18 years of marriage, I went through a bitter divorce. I received full custody of my children, and in the divorce, I fought for the home. I thought having the family home was going to be this position of stability for my children. That was a big mistake. So I went from not thinking about what I was spending to having to figure out what was an actual need and what was an actual want. I had no career because we agreed that I would be a stay-home mom. But as the signs started showing up more and more that my marriage was ending, I became a personal trainer because I've always been involved in athletics and worked out. So I did that because it would it helped me be flexible and still be with my children. So I had the salary, really, it's it's commission of a personal trainer. I didn't have the funds that that I needed, and I was very disillusioned with God. I felt in my heart that he let me down. I blamed him. Maybe not even, I never even probably spoke that out loud, but I really blamed him for my husband not overcoming this addiction and our family falling apart. So I thought, I'm just gonna figure this out on my own without God. You haven't been there anyways. And he let me. Or so I thought. Yeah. So there were several sleep sleepless nights. I worried about money. Then one of my clients that I was training hired me into the mortgage business. And right when I was out of college, I be I was in the mortgage business, and I thought, are you kidding me? I haven't done this for almost 20 years. I don't know, everything's different, the law's different. But he encouraged me and I thought this would be a way to help me through this struggle because it was real. So I took the test and passed. I took the job and I became a mortgage lender again. This job allowed me to get out of debt and to afford my home and help others work through financial struggle struggles and become successful. If I didn't go through all this, I would never have been able to see people and understand the emotions involved in financial pressures. This is why I love what I do. I help people work through their struggles. I give them hope and tell them it is possible to come out of this financial pressure and to be a very successful homeowner.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Okay, so that is why when we prayed, your name came up. Because when I mean, I I knew your story. Um, and I think that we have a lot of listeners that are stay-at-home moms or um working part-time, we also have a lot that work full-time and balance being a mom. Um, but either way, if you're doing any of that, you still have finances you have to deal with. Um, and so I know that we deal a lot with families and parents, and we're not, this is not my expertise by any means, but it is yours. And the more wisdom that we can get from you and get out for people to kind of think through some of this is kind of the goal for today. Sure. So talk to me a little bit. Why do you think um people fall behind in their finances?

SPEAKER_01 5:59

I don't think it's intentional ever, obviously. I think they are living in the moment and not planning for the future. And some people just don't have great discipline.

SPEAKER_04 6:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

You know, it's it's well, my kids want this, or they're trying to keep up with the Joneses. And the other thing is it's just a lot tougher to live right now.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Yeah, it's expensive.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

It is, it's really expensive.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

Do you think the average person is living paycheck to paycheck?

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Absolutely.

unknown 6:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

I see it all the time.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

So then when you're living paycheck to paycheck and things happen with your car breakdown or the kids' activity, like it just gets you just get behind.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Yeah, it snowballs.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

It really does.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Um the talk to us about like the average person in credit card debt. I know that this is something you deal with daily. Can you kind of explain all that to us?

SPEAKER_01 6:49

So the American public is $1.2 trillion in credit card debt. And that is at an interest rate of 20 to 25%, is the average for credit cards. So they just can't get ahead.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Yeah, it's just it it goes back to you charge it and then you don't have enough to pay it off. And it just it just gets overwhelming. Um, and that's kind of why I wanted to bring up the paycheck to paycheck, just because it's expensive, and most of our families have multiple kids that are in sports and dance and gymnastics and the school and school supplies and back to school. We always would say our August was almost as expensive as our December, getting all the back to school clothes. And um, so the goal of today is not for people to be turning this off. I really want people to listen because you have such practical ways to build confidence in your finances. So, can you talk to that, talk to us about that? And I love this when we started, you mentioned let's don't start with the B word. Right. And I was like, wait, what? Um, but so just talk, talk to us about practical ways to build some confidence in our finances.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Okay. Well, we we laugh because the B word is budget, right? And I share that with all my clients. So don't get turned off because it's really not as horrible as you think. It's but if you're buried in debt, it's a necessary step. So the first step is looking at your finances, and a lot of people don't because we all practice avoidance, and I think that's one of the reasons we get farther and farther in debt because we just don't want to look. So we pay the credit card minimums and we never look at the balance and we don't look at what's coming in and what's going out. We're just living pay paycheck to paycheck. So what I did when I was going through the struggles is I had to literally go what is a need and what is a want. And a practical way to do this is to actually print bank statements for the last two months and pull out all your credit card statements and print those and go through them and say, okay, this is an actual need and highlight it in yellow. So I recommend just anything that's a need, like your utility bills, your rent, your mortgage, those type of things. They are needs. And then in a different color, highlight what the wants were, like, you know, eating out at McDonald's or or DoorDash, which don't get me started on.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Wait, so I kind of do because I know you work with a lot of younger generations. Yes. Can you talk about DoorDash?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

DoorDash is my nemesis.

unknown 9:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 9:33

Tell me why.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Well, I'll look at their statements and they spend so much money on DoorDash, and it is it's double almost, or sometimes $10. They they DoorDash Chick-fil-A. And there's this extra charge on, and it just accumulates. And I'll tell my young people, all right, for the next month, no DoorDash. Yeah. And it's just a withdraw for them. They're like, what? Yeah. And um, we kind of tease about it. It's, but it is something that if you're really trying to get ahead, you that's one thing you can stop without feeling it. Yes, it's a little inconvenient for you to go out and do that. You have to plan and actually go to the grocery store. Right. But that's an area that you can make a really quick adjustment in that can make a big difference. Because what if you take that extra $100 a month and you pay it on that credit card that you're trying to get ahead on?

SPEAKER_03 10:26

Right. Okay. So, and I want to throw in a little nugget with that. Because we have seen more and more children falling behind in development because they're not going to grocery stores and hearing that language, or they're not going into restaurants and looking the person in the eye and asking for their to-go sack. Like there, there's so much with getting your kids out and going into these places and walking in the parking lot, teaching them that cars are dangerous. Like there's just so much. So we see more and more children not knowing those basic skills because they are door dashing. So it also builds development. Wow. I definitely need to get your kids out of the car and go in. And so Yeah. Okay. So I hadn't thrown in the development.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

No, I love that. Makes perfect sense. Okay. So back to highlighting the needs and the wants. So in this other color, you're going to highlight all your wants. And then you just have to take a good hard look at it, add it up, and you're going to feel like somebody kicked you in the stomach.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

But just get through that moment and then really decide, okay, the needs, they're they are needs. I have to have them. But the the wants, what is really most important? And a lot of times you'll look at it and go, I could live without this. I could live without this. Oh, I didn't even realize I was spending that much. Quick trip. Or the other thing is coffee. Like coffee, we are so, and I love a good cup of coffee and I love going to a coffee shop and visiting. But I also um I had an employer and he said, and he was a bank, he was the bank president that I worked for at the time. And I was drinking a Starbucks one morning and he came in and and we were chatting and he said, you know, I don't do Starbucks. I said, You don't? And he said, Yeah. He goes, I he goes, I looked at my bill for one month and I thought, forget that. I'm gonna put this into the market. And it just was a light bulb for me. Here's this man who who doesn't have issues with finances, but this is why he's analyzing his spending even at that level and saying, I could take this and let this money make money for me, opposed to just drinking it away.

SPEAKER_04 12:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

So and I'm not saying that you should withdraw from meeting a friend at Starbucks, but there are things you can drink. Uh now I hardly do. Like I if I'm setting an appointment, that's something I've budgeted and it's well worth it. But every day on my way to work, I used to get coffee every single day. And I don't do that. I make coffee at home now, and then if I have an appointment out, I go out and I have a cup of coffee and I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

What about monthly subscriptions? Oh, yes, that's huge. And there are apps for this too. So you can you'd be amazed, and they'll see that on the month, they'll see, oh my goodness, I don't even use this, and I'm paying $21 a month for this and $17 for that. And it adds up easily. You can have a couple hundred dollars worth of subscriptions that you hardly use.

SPEAKER_04 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

And and that's where you have to go, is is this TV network even worth it? I don't even use it. Yeah. So those are definitely something that that it's all eye-opening. When you have the courage to look at your finances and what you know, I just say if you track it, it can get measured. So if you can't measure something, then you just don't know really where it's going to take you. You have to be able to track your money. And that doesn't mean that means every level of society. So what especially when you're struggling, you do. But even when you have a lot of extra money, you should track it.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Yeah. Well, you just end up being more responsible with the Lord's money.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Um, and it's easy to just go day to day and not track it.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

And I'm a little guilty of that too. Ryan probably does a better job than I do.

unknown 14:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

But I also probably need to know more about what he does. Um, I feel like we have a lot of moms that just kind of let the husbands do it. Yep. It's kind of like you, is you that's your story, right? You were there until you had to dive into it and really figure it out. And that's why you have such a passion to get people more involved with it.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Absolutely. And it's good for husbands and wives to be in unity on this. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

It takes pressure off the husbands too. It does. Um, so okay, so we've highlighted the needs, highlighted the once. I'm sitting here listening to this going, but I have no idea how to budget. Like I don't even know really what I've heard that word, I don't know what that means. What would you recommend they do?

SPEAKER_01 14:50

So there's a ton of apps. After you do that, I would recommend getting an app. There's so many budgeting apps that online that make it really easy that you just attach to your checking account. And in it, you're just, they're very simple. You just put what you're gonna know at that time, these are my needs, and then you'll decide how much you want to spend, I'm saying wants for wants. So, okay, we're gonna eat out. I'm putting $100 in my eating out budget for that month or whatever your number is. Then once you hit the hundred, it shows you. So then the rest of the month, you go, Oh, I've got to go to the grocery store. We're not going to eat out. But it's really simple. There's so many apps out there that can make it simple, or you can do it. I actually use Excel. So I have, and I give it to my, I give the flyers to and the Excel spreadsheets to my clients and say, plug it in. So it really just depends what generation you are. You know, people like me, they want to see the actual numbers, they enjoy the Excel spreadsheet a little more. The younger, they want the apps. So either way, there's so many tools out there, and there's even tools that will look through all of like your subscriptions and cancel them for you. Wow. Okay. So that's another thing, just to be proactive in our finances instead of reactive.

SPEAKER_03 16:09

Okay, so what if I'm sitting here, I know I have two or three credit cards, I know the interest rate, and I'm sitting here going, I'll never get these paid off. Where do I start?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

Well, there's two ways I I say to pay off credit card debt. So it depends on your personality. The first way is the snowball effect, and it is take the one that has the smallest balance, and it doesn't matter what who what in the interest rate is on it, and work on paying that one off first. So pay the minimum, say you have three cards, pay the minimum on the other two, and put all your extra money on that one and do it every single month until it's paid. And the reason people like the majority of people like to pay off this way is because then once you do it, it's momentum and you're like, I did it. So then you start on the next one. Okay. And uh with the next highest balance and then the final. So the other way is if you're more logical, like me, I literally I'm more of a numbers that I want, okay, what's the highest interest rate? I am I'm hammering that one out. And then you work from the highest interest rate down. But you on either way, you're going to pay the minimum on the other couple, and you'll put more into the one you you've intended to pay off first.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

Okay, I like that. Um, also, could you talk to me? Tell me the difference between an emergency fund and a rainy day fund.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Okay, so if you're purchasing a home from me, one of the first things I I chat with people about is an emergency fund. If we learned anything from COVID, we should know something could happen that we don't expect. You could not have be working for a few months. Right. So the emergency fund is a month. I call it's the emergency fund, you'll put all of your expenses that it takes you, I mean food, housing, auto payments, credit card payments, your full monthly expenses account as uh that's you would put one month. Okay. And then but my my thing is that they should have a three to six months savings of emergency funds. Okay. So when you purchase a home, I want you to have at least three months of your expenses saved somewhere. And this isn't just where you can pull it out of. I I want it to be liquid, so I don't recommend it going to a CD because if you need it, you need to be able to get it. So I recommend putting in a money market or a high yield savings.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

And that's money you do not touch unless it's a legit real emergency. It's not that, oh, my sister invited us to go on vacation and we really need to go. Right. So we don't pull from our emergency accounts for that. It is just set aside, you don't touch it unless it's an emergency.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Okay. So emergency, explain that to me. Is it like I lost my job, it pays the bills, or I need a new roof and I have a deductible that I can afford? That's both. Okay.

unknown 18:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Both. So it's it's an emergency.

SPEAKER_03 19:00

It's used because you have to do basically, but not the vacations or the the needs. Yes. Okay. Yes. So then talk to us about rainy day.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Rainy day is more like the vacation fund. Okay. So that's money you're saying after you have your emergency fund built up, then you work on your rainy day fund. Okay. And that's where you're just putting aside every month money to do something fun for a rainy day. Your sister calls you and says, Hey, let's go to Florida. You have money in there that you can pull out without disrupting your current budget and getting you into credit card debt again. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Do you mind talking a little bit about tithing? And I it this really wasn't anything you and I talked about, but I know where you stand with the Lord. Um, when Ryan and I got married and we started going to a church here in Tulsa, and I'll never forget we heard the first sermon on tithing. And I think our parents, I don't even know, they never talked to us about tithing, so I don't know if they did or didn't. Um, but we had no clue what that meant or what that really looked like. And to be very honest, we didn't have the money to do it, but we felt like the Lord wanted us to. And so we just kind of took a deep breath and decided we're doing it. And we decided the minute he got paid, because I were I got paid, we went we got paid, um, we would put that 10% back to the church. Can you talk about tithing? Do you recommend tithing?

SPEAKER_01 20:22

100%.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Okay, talk to me about that.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

It's part of my journey. Um, if you tithe, the Lord says, This is the only place in the Bible that God says, try me. He says, test me on this and see if I won't open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you cannot even obtain. So in it, I've seen, I've lived it, I've seen it over and over again. Nobody has the money to tithe, right? They just don't. So in the natural. But if you will just look at your finances and believe God that if I give him the first fruits, which he says to that 10%, then he takes, he does what God's the best at. He multiplies that 90% and makes you have more than what you would have had with the full hundred percent. I've seen it over and over. And he he also promises that he'll rebuke the devourer for our sake if we're tithers. So there's biblical principles that when we tithe, and I also believe in pointing it at God, just being everything that God does is around faith. So when you tithe, you just pray over it. My husband and I, we pray over our tithe together. Every week we pray over our tithe. And it's just part of our covenant with him. It's our agreement with God. Yeah. That Lord, you've given us this and we're honoring you with our first fruits because you are the one that's blessing us.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

I love it. Do you have family set financial goals?

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 21:50

Can you talk about that?

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Yes. So um, and that's actually in my story is my husband and I when we got married. Which is seven years ago, my my husband, my new husband, he still seems new to me. But anyway, um, our goals were to be totally out of debt. And we weren't at that time. We had a mortgage, we had auto payments, and I did. He I think his might have been paid off. And so we we spoke about it and we put a certain amount towards those. And we're debt-free now. We you know, we don't owe on our vehicles, we don't owe on our home. So we set certain amounts, and quite frankly, my kids make fun of us because we don't eat out like the the young people. You don't do DoorDash? No, imagine that. But they always tease me about it. And and we have decided we chose not to spend our money on, you know, eating out all the time. And granted, we still do things, but we really set a certain amount and that's it.

SPEAKER_04 22:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

So um it and we got there. And got it was it was so the Lord. Yeah. I'm telling you, I don't even know how He did it so amazingly. He blessed my business, he and just just took from the 10% we gave, he just multiplied it.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

Yeah. I mean, it seems so far. Like I hear that and think, oh, I you don't have a mortgage and you don't have a car payment. I mean, it just seems so far from reality.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

It it is. It's a it is a flat out miracle. Yeah. I mean, I was struggling on how am I going to pay this mortgage when you look at it like 15 years ago, I I didn't even sleep at night. Yeah. I was like, God, how am I gonna make this? This house payment's overwhelming. And along the way, he God showed up and I wasn't looking for him. I was doing it on my own, but he's so good to us that that's his nature. And he he put this job opportunity in front of me. And did I have to do some stuff? Yeah, I had to study, I worked hard, but he blesses us. He, you know, he says, What do you have in your hand? And he and he blessed us. And yeah, I would have never thought, honestly, at that time, that I would ever not have a mortgage payment or an auto payment, even, you know, and and credit card, like the credit card debt. And it's just a testimony to him.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

So if I'm sitting here listening to this, going, Okay, well, I don't tithe, I have credit card debt, I don't have a budget, goals, that sounds good. I really don't know how to set goals. Like, where do we start?

SPEAKER_01 24:20

The first thing I would start with is just taking it to the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

And being real with him and saying, God, you know this, this is where I'm at, and I need your help.

SPEAKER_04 24:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

And and then I would say, look at your budget and tithe. And if you can't say you uh you're where you I really can't have 10%, I have to pay my mortgage. Well, then give of your time, but start giving somewhere. You know, start giving and ask the Lord. Give, you know, in the Bible it says he gives seed to the sower. So say, Lord, if if you can't make yourself do it, if there's nowhere, ask him for seed and it'll change. Okay. He will.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

I love that. I love that. Um, we building all children, of course, we're about children, we're about families. That's why I felt like this topic was important. Um, but we also have a lot of families ask us, okay, my child does tour chores, should we pay him? Should we not pay him? Um, how do we teach our children about money? How do we teach them to budget? If we're not budgeting, how do we teach them to budget? Do you have any advice to our parents that want to teach their children these skills? Personally, I mean, I think it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

I think it's good to say, if you do this and this, you make your bet every week, you're going to get whatever you decide to pay them. You know, um, I'm not for everybody that plays gets a trophy. Right. I think it's really important to show children that if you work for something, you'll be rewarded because that's how life is.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

And I I believe that kids need to understand money. Like no one talked to me about money. Yeah, me. And quite frankly, I didn't talk to my kids about money, and I wish I had. You know, when I was struggling, I just held it in and I had to say, uh, I just don't have the the money to give you this. And so all they heard was, I don't have it. And because I was struggling in it, and then, you know, they were pretty much grown by the time I had really gotten into my job and thought, wow, I really missed it. But I know some people that are really good with their children. And they just say, Look at this is this is what you do each week, and if you do it, you get paid. And if you don't, you're not going to. And that's the hardest thing as a parent because they're gonna whine and say, But I did part of it, and you and that's where you say no.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Because in life, we don't get paid if we don't do our jobs.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Yeah, no, it's good. And so if they if they pay for their allowance, should we teach them to save some of that? Yeah. Give it back to the church or give it back to an organization.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

I think it's really important if as parents we teach, like I wish I had was taught to tithe when I was a child. Like, what if you just take out of every dollar, tell them we're gonna give 10 cents of this and watch God show up? Like, how powerful is that?

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Yeah, it is powerful. And it's just molding them early. Yes, and it becomes a habit. Right, right, right. Absolutely. Okay, I love that. Well, Karen, I knew you had a lot of wisdom in this area, and I honestly feel like we could go way deeper with it, so we might have you back because I feel like some families are gonna have some questions and um need some more wisdom with this. We always wrap up our podcast with scripture. We believe in the Bible, we believe in the truth, we know it's active, we know it's alive. Do you have a scripture that you would like to share with families? I do. I do. Oh, perfect. Does not surprise me.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Um, so Romans 2, 4 is my my testimony scripture. And it says, the goodness of God leads you to repentance. And I think that if you call out to God, he shows up and he's good. He's good. So at your darkest moment, if you can just say, God, I need your help, yeah, that's he will show up in a good way. Even in my story, when I said, I'm gonna do this on my own, there are so many sprinkles of God in my life that when I was going through it, I might not have seen it. But now when I look back, I'm like, wow, that was you. Yeah. And here I'm saying, I'm doing this on my own. You didn't show up for me here, so forget you. Yeah. And he still wooed me because he's a father. There's a reason God is just described as a father, just like your children, even though they mess up, you're not going to turn your back on him. And even though they say, Yeah, well, I'm not talking to you anymore, it doesn't mean that you stop talking to them, right? Right. So I just think it through everything we do, if we look through the lens, that God is really good. I know it's a cliche in the church, but the truth is he's amazing and he is a loving father, and he wants us to prosper in every area.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

And finances, in relationships, in in every single area. So that's my first scripture. Okay, I love it. Then 2 Corinthians 9 8 in the New Living Translation says, and God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. And that's what He's shown me in my journey. Because I'm I'm in that place now where I can share with others. And and I believe that it's the truth, the word's true.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Yeah. So those are the ones I have for you. I love it. I love the that you encourage them to just right now, just go seek the Lord. Tell him where you are in your finances and ask him for guidance. And scripture tells us that if we ask for wisdom, he will give it to us. And so if you are listening to this and you're thinking, Ugh, I am so far from ever being debt-free, just go to the Lord and just ask for some guidance and wisdom and take baby steps. The baby steps will slowly get you where you need to be.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

Okay. Thank you. Thank you for sharing with us today. I'm so grateful for your time.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Oh, thank you. It's an honor.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Let us close with a word of prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for these children in our lives. Thank you for all the resources you have placed in our life to help us rise up and build. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the Rise and Build Podcast, brought to you by Building All Children, a child development program in Tulsa, Oklahoma. To learn more about Building All Children or the Rise and Build Podcast, please visit buildingallchildren.org. This podcast is crowdfunded. We appreciate our sponsors and the donations given by our listeners. Come with us as we rise and build.