The Peaceful Mompreneur
Encouraging and equipping Christian Mompreneurs to have peace in their lives and business while staying grounded in Jesus Christ.
The Peaceful Mompreneur
True Peace Requires Financial Surrender
Financial surrender might be the most overlooked aspect of Christian discipleship, yet it's often where we struggle most to release control. Author Heather M. Day joins us to unpack how true peace requires giving our finances completely to God.
Connect with Heather --> heatherday.net
"Money and Spirit: Surrendering Our Finances to the Work of the Holy Spirit" --> heatherday.net/book
About:
Despite growing up in church and understanding tithing, Heather admits that fully surrendering finances to God's direction wasn't something she'd considered until experiencing its transformative power personally. Her book "Money and Spirit: Surrendering Our Finances to the Work of the Holy Spirit" wasn't born from financial expertise but from obedience to God's surprising prompting. Through powerful storytelling, Heather explores how each fruit of the Spirit manifests in our financial lives, offering a unique perspective beyond typical money management advice.
When we feel financially hopeless, Heather emphasizes two critical truths: God never intended us to handle money alone, and community plays an essential role in financial health. By examining our spending patterns, we often discover deeper heart issues—are we buying to project an image? Hoarding from fear? Hiding purchases from loved ones? These behaviors reveal areas where surrender is needed most.
For those with reluctant spouses, Heather shares her own journey. Rather than nagging her husband into tithing, she focused on her own obedience while praying for his heart to change—eventually witnessing his dramatic transformation as God worked. This principle applies broadly: do what you can, surrender what you can't control, and listen carefully to understand perspectives different from your own.
Ready to experience peace in your finances? Start by acknowledging God's ownership of everything, examine your spending motivations, and invite trusted community into your journey. Connect with Heather at heatherday.net and find her book wherever books are sold.
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Welcome to the Peaceful Mompignor.
Speaker 1:We're so glad that you're here. So, finding true peace wholeheartedly oh see, I did mess up. I am going to regret this. I'm going to cut the beginning out. I will fix the beginning if I really ruin it. Here we go. Welcome to the Peaceful Mompignor. Finding true peace in Jesus Christ means wholeheartedly surrendering and, my friend, that also includes our finances. I know most people don't talk about it, but that is the truth.
Speaker 1:My guest today, heather M Day, is the author and ministry leader with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of marketing, communications and nonprofit ministry, and she is the director for marketing for Barnabas Foundation, where she provides a marketing consultant and supports for more than 200 Christian ministries. She is the author of Money and Spirit Surrendering Our Finances to the Work of the Holy Spirit. So it sounds like she knows what she's talking about, so we should listen to her. Heather, thank you so much for being here with us. Thank you, I'm so glad to be here. Absolutely, so when we talk about being wholly surrendered, rarely do we talk about money. That's not something that comes up in Christian circles, unless you're literally a finance person, right, right? So tell us why it is so important for us to surrender our finances.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, honestly, like I said, not made a conversation for me in my life. I grew up in a church, I grew up I'm a pastor's kid, and so we had talked about tithing from a young age and so that came natural to me, that was something we'd talked about, but every lesson I had you know, going back to children's church, youth group, into college, every lesson when we talked about surrendering, it was like I will surrender my career to the Lord or I'll surrender my family to the Lord. I'll found, and in my, in my marriage, money has such a hold on us and can have such a grip on, on who we are, and we just came to this moment, my husband and I, where we just truly fully surrendered it over to God. We want you to guide how we view and manage our money, and it's made all the difference.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, yeah, so what made you write a whole book about it? Like, that's that's going from. Like, okay, yeah, I'll surrender this to like, let me write all about it, though that's a. There's a big gap there, so we're missing some context. So what happened?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I will give the short answer is God Good answer? Good answer. The long and the longer answer is in my organization, we had received a grant to um to produce a resource to help. Good answer, good answer. And um, we just my boss had this moment where he just stopped and he said, god, this is your money, this is your resources, this is your grant. We want to do what you want us to do, um, so give us the ideas that we need.
Speaker 2:And and truly came out of that conversation that this idea began to form for a resource to help people in local churches who are just feeling, um, under the bondage of their finances and feeling like there's no hope. And that story resonated with me in particular, because I have been there many times, you know, where I've just felt like there was no hope for my situation. And yet, when my husband and I surrendered it to God, we began to see how he brought the people and systems and resources into our life to try to start to turn things around. So, yeah, I got into this book project and, to be honest, the imposter syndrome was hitting me hardcore, because I am not a finance expert and I'm like, who am I to tell this, but I just felt it deeply in my soul of yeah, but I ask you to do it, and so, yeah, so that's how it came about.
Speaker 1:That's great. I love that and I love that. You are you know, you're aware like this is not my thing, but like God told me to do it, and so I feel like we talk about that a lot Like we aren't necessarily the best equipped for whatever God told us to do, but like he said to do it. So obedience is so much more than being prepared, because along the way, you know, like just do the things he says to do. That's beautiful. I love that story. So you talked about hope and like how you felt like you didn't have this hope. So how do we find that in our finances if we feel like we're struggling?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a lot of times we just we get down into this dark place where we feel like we've got to figure it out on our own and we see no answers.
Speaker 2:And we see we're just so deeply looking at our own circumstances that we can't see beyond it deeply looking at our own circumstances, that we can't see beyond it. And what I have found is that and I truly believe in my heart is that God never designed us to do on our own. First of all, he wants to be involved and wants to walk us hand in hand and walk us through our circumstances and be our guide and be our provider and our source of strength and a source of peace. Guide and be our provider and our source of strength and a source of peace. And also he has put us in community. So I found that a big piece of it was not only opening up to God how do you want to work in my life and what do you want to do but also being open to the people that he put in my life and being transparent with them so they could help me along the way as well.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. I love that. So what would you say if you were talking to a mom? She's got young kids, she's trying to start a business, she's, you know, doing the things and she is in this place. What would her first step be? To really move forward and be, you know, feel like she has this peace with the Lord?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it starts by admitting it and asking for his intervention. I have, like I said, I have been there. I've been there today, let alone many times in my life where I just get so caught up in my circumstances and I'm trying to fix it on my own, I'm trying to figure out how to handle this and that with my kids and how to handle this and that with my work, and it kind of just slaps me across the face. Have you even talked to God about it? And so I would say stop, pray like, truly like, dwell in that moment of God. This is your day, this is your business, this is your family. How do you want to be involved and then and then wait on him, be ready and expecting that he wants to work?
Speaker 1:I like that. I think too often we think that, you know, praying isn't doing anything, but honestly, it's the best thing that you can do. Um, just stopping. He's got the whole world right, like that song. He's got the whole world in his hands, which is literal, and so if he's got that like he cares about whatever it is that you're doing and whatever your problem is at that moment, so that's beautiful. I love that Very good advice. So can you tell us a little bit more about your book? Like so what exactly? Like? If I picked it up, what am I getting out of your?
Speaker 2:book. So the book is very story-based. I tell about my own journey, but I also talk to several people who have had their own struggles with finances and for some it can be debt, but also it can be fear, it can be greed, it can be all these sorts of things and it's stories and an invitation to what does it look like when we ask the Holy Spirit to be involved and how does the fruit of the Spirit show up in our finances. So every chapter walks through a fruit of the Spirit. So, for example, what does it look like from the very top? What does it look like to experience the fruit of love in our finances, to really understand how much we are deeply loved by the Father and how that transforms our sense of self-worth and what it means to feel worthy even without, in spite of our belongings, and also to live open handed and show that same love to others. What does it look like to for the fruit of peace to be in our life? What does it look like to have joy in our life?
Speaker 2:So each chapter is a deep exploration of the fruit of the Spirit, but then also it has prayers and invitations to just allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and guide you when does? Where does he want to speak to you in your situation? The other thing about the book is that, like I said, I feel like I know that God did not create us to do this on our own. So every copy of the book also includes a discussion guide at the end, which is a really helpful tool to start the conversation, whether it's with your spouse or with a small group or a book club. You know, these are things that don't come naturally for us to talk about, so this helps provide that prompt to get into that space of authenticity and support.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful, thank you. So you talked about community a couple of times. Can you just dive a little bit deeper into how community actually helps you give your finances to the Lord? What does that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can say a few different ways, you know. So after I wrote this book, my pastor asked me if I'd be willing to lead a small group on it and that seemed, I don't know. I kind of like I've kind of put on my hands of defense, you know, against that, I don't know. I kind of put on my hands of defense against that because I thought I don't want to seem self-promoting For whatever reason. I was early on resistant to it. But he said you know who better to talk about it than the person who?
Speaker 1:wrote it, he's not wrong.
Speaker 2:He's not wrong, but it was funny because I asked him. I said, well, I'm going to do this. Funny because I asked him. I said, well, I'm going to do this, but I want my husband to do this along with me. So as we're doing this, leaving this Bible study, we literally my daughter is graduating tomorrow night from high school, and so we have a new set of challenges financially of her going to college and all these sorts of things, and we're literally on our way to lead this group.
Speaker 2:And my husband is saying how can we possibly lead a group when we haven't got it all figured out? And yet that's what a group is all about is admitting I don't have all the answers, and this is what I'm struggling with, and I think when we are honest about that and open to that, we can encourage others to be honest and we can also learn from one another. So in that group we have, we've had practical advice that we've received and given, but also just encouragement for our journey, people who are able to say you know, I've been there too and here's what I found, here's how, here's how God helped me through my situation, and all of a sudden, something that feels like I'm all alone, and I'm the weirdo who doesn't have this figured out. All of a sudden, we realized that we all have common experiences, that we need the encouragement of one another.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. Yeah, it's beautiful how the Lord brings all these people together and you feel so isolated, which is one of the tactics of the enemy when you don't live in community, right.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:So if you're willing to step out and be that vulnerable person, then you create a safe place for other people to also be there, and what you've done is created a culture of accountability, and so now you're all going together right? The rising tide raises all boats, or whatever that saying is, so that's super, super fabulous. I love that. So, for those who might be overwhelmed or ashamed or unsure about their financial situation, what is a small, impactful step that can take to start being aligned aligning their finances with their values?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would again. I would start with surrender and asking God to examine your heart, but also start looking at the expenditures that you're making and asking why am I doing that so? Is it because I feel like I'm not enough and I want to surround myself? I want to portray an image of having it all together. Is it because I want to show my love to my children, so I'm spending on them when what they really want is my time? Start looking at where your money is going and you can start to see where your heart is as well. Am I hoarding because I want to feel safe? Um, and I want to make sure that I'm never caught off guard and that I have enough Um. Again, if, if we are relying on um, on safety and security and peace and our worth because of our things, we've missed the boat, because God, the creator of those things, is the true source of, of, of stability and comfort and joy.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. Yes, he is absolutely our foundation and everything else is just extra. You gave a couple of them, but can you give some more questions like prompts that people can ask themselves when they're thinking like is does this have a hold on me?
Speaker 2:can ask themselves when they're thinking like is does this have a hold on me? Another question that you can ask yourself is am am I tempted to hide my behaviors? Am I, am I not? Am I doing things in the dark because I'm afraid that other people might see? Um, whether it's a human, my spouse or or my friends like, am I doing this in private? When we are drawn to secrecy, it's usually an indication of a problem. So if I'm trying to hide the expenses of what I did at the store, there's probably means that I'm spending in excess of what I'm willing to admit. So that's a question that you can have.
Speaker 2:You can also look at has money become a source of tension in my relationship, again, with my kids or my family or with my spouse? Is money a topic that we're arguing about or that I feel resentful about? Again, that's an indication there's a problem. So it's an opportunity to examine. Why do I feel this way when we talk about this?
Speaker 2:One of the biggest wins for us as a couple was in that surrender was coming to a place where we're saying we're on the same team. We're not going to hide things from one another. We're going to seek God's will together from one another. We're going to seek God's will together and, um, and it helped in the, in the spending, it helped us to understand some of the issues that were at play that we needed to address. Um, I think our money problems are genuine, generally an indication of much deeper issues that are going on that we need to address, and it's just we need to look at where the money goes. There's where our heart is and where the struggle is. Yeah, absolutely so. It's just we need to look at where the money goes. There's where our heart is and where the struggle is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. Let's say that there is a woman listening who is on board and wants to do this, but she can't seem to get her spouse to also be on board. What advice would you give her and how can she start doing it on her own?
Speaker 2:But even though they're a team, start doing it on our own, but even though they're a team, you know, oh yeah, oh yeah, there have been okay. So I will give you a practical example. So I told you that I grew up in a church and tithing was a behavior that I just did. From the very beginning, my husband had the complete opta upbringing. So I he did not understand tithing, did not. Uh, when, when I first brought it up, it was this like you want me to do what? Like we can barely scrape by Um. And so I resolved at that time in our early marriage that I was just going to continue to pray about it and surrender it to the Lord and let God work on his heart about that. Um, because, um, because that was not my battle to fight. I was going to be faithful in the things that that God was calling me to do and pray for the things that were out of my control.
Speaker 2:So, over time, one of the first things that happened after we had this moment of surrender was God. God really began to work on Robert's heart and he felt this realization that it starts here. We're going to start giving to God first and then, if we have to cut back in other areas we will, and that's nothing that I could have nagged him into, that's nothing that I could have convinced him into. It was a faith building moment for him, and he points back to that as a major decision that changed everything, because he realized that he had to put his money where his mouth is, you know, like he had to. If I trust, if I truly trust God, it starts with my finances, and he counts that as a moment that really transformed not only our finances but his life as well, because he saw God's provision over and over again. So, long story short, do what you can with what God is calling you to do, and surrender and pray about the rest.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. I like that. We talk a lot about radical surrender and radical oh, I forgot the other one. I say it all the time and I can't even remember radical surrender and radical obedience. Man, I don't know doing what you what you said, right.
Speaker 1:Do what you can do and letting go of the things that are not your responsibility. I should have my own saying done well better, but that's fine, um, out of bingo Anywho. So I really love that that. That is very practical advice, like let go of what you can't handle. You are not in control of your spouse. Um, it's just not possible and honestly, you don't want that, even if you think you do.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you know no, and also I, if I could just say like I would also listen and try to understand. You know, like I think a lot of times, like I'm we have in our heads what God is wanting us to do and we're like, well, maybe I'm just speaking for myself, I just like I'm a bull in a China shop. I'm going to convince him until I wear him down when in reality he makes good points and he has insight that God has given to him. And sometimes I'm so caught up in getting my own message and way through that I miss out on what God wants to reveal to me through the wisdom of my husband. So not only pray about what's not in your control, but seek to listen Like what is it that I need to learn in a situation and what can I learn from him?
Speaker 1:That is very good advice. I love that so much. That's great, um, okay, so um, before we start wrapping it up and we tell everybody where we can find you, is there anything else that you want to share that I didn't ask you about?
Speaker 2:Um, I would just say, uh, I, you know this is kind of a going down a different road, but this is what I was reminded again today and I think it speaks to your audience in particular, like it's just continuing to remember your why and God's calling on your life and what he's asking you to do. And just like we kind of talked about at the very beginning, as I wrote this and as I've dealt with different circumstances, I felt I've dealt with that imposter syndrome or why me, God? Why are you asking me to do this? And I would just remind you that that whatever God is asking you to do, he will. He will provide the way. He's not surprised by your inadequacies, he's not surprised by your quiracies, he's not surprised by your quirks. He knows exactly who you are and if he's asked you to do something, be faithful, trusting that the guy that he sees all and knows all and will make it possible.
Speaker 1:That is lovely. I love that so much. Thank you, thank you. Okay, so where can we find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the best way to find me is through my website, heatherdaynet. So that's heatherdaynet, and on there you can find all my socials. I'd love you. I'd love to connect. I'm old school, I'm not as trendy as everybody else, so if you're going to connect with me, probably Facebook is the place to do it. But you could find all that information on my website, and I keep a blog there. Um would love to love to interact with you and hear from you.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Okay, and so tell us where we can find your book as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the book is available wherever your favorite books are sold, so you can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Walmart. Wherever you like to shop for books, you can find it there.
Speaker 1:Wonderful, that's really easy. Is it on your website as well?
Speaker 2:There's information on there that'll take you to a direct link.
Speaker 1:Wonderful, okay, and so I will link those in the description of this so everybody can get a hold of you. That is amazing, all right, well, thank you so much for being with us, heather. Oh, it's been a real pleasure. Thank you, absolutely, absolutely. Bye guys.