Sowing Generously: How to Build Margin in Your Budget to Bless Others

Welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship! Following up on last week's budgeting deep-dive, we are shifting our focus from saving money to freely giving it away. Generosity isn't just a biblical mandate; it actually comes with incredible physical, mental, and emotional health benefits!

Before we get into the budget, we are spilling our "Crunchy Confessions." We talk about the natural products we completely regret buying, the deodorants that ruined our shirts, and the sticker shock of 100% organic cotton underwear. Plus, Chrissy drops a massive Random Revelation about how the FDA allows companies to hide MSG in your favorite "healthy" foods using sneaky ingredients like citric acid and natural flavors.

When it comes to our finances, God cares far more about our heart posture than our accounting technicalities. We discuss the theology of a cheerful giver, how to build a "blessing fund" into your monthly budget, and why learning contentment is the absolute best financial strategy you can implement.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Random Revelation: The FDA loopholes that allow companies to hide MSG in plain sight (watch out for carrageenan, maltodextrin, natural flavors, and citric acid derived from GMO corn!).
• Crunchy Confessions: Our honest reviews of natural products that didn't work out, including tongue scrapers, Avalon Organics conditioner, and Dr. Squatch deodorant.
• Clean Deodorant Swaps: Why we actually love Cleo & Coco and Little Seed Farms.
• The Cost of Organic Cotton: Navigating the sticker shock of Pact apparel versus the budget-friendly options at Quince and Sam's Club.
• The Theology of Giving: Looking at 1 Corinthians 9:7 and Acts 20 to understand why God loves a cheerful giver and how generosity impacts our physical health.
• The Blessing Fund: How tracking your expenses (like that $400/month coffee habit!) creates the necessary margin to bless others spontaneously.
• Contentment over Scarcity: Why praying for your "daily bread" is a prayer for contentment, and how faithful stewardship of a small budget prepares you for greater kingdom impact.

Resources mentioned:

• Clean Deodorant: Cleo & Coco | Little Seed Farms
• Organic Cotton Apparel: Pact | Quince
• Book Recommendation: Redeeming Money by Paul David Tripp
• Financial Coaching: SeedTime (Mission Driven Millionaire) https://checkout.seedtime.com/referral/rNllzz8e/hFtmrylRRW7I0zu8

Chapters:

00:00 Welcome & The Health Benefits of Generosity 
02:15 Random Revelation: Hidden MSG, Citric Acid, and Natural Flavors 
09:30 Navigating Food Allergies & Post-Junk Food Detox Breakfasts 
13:45 Crunchy Confessions: Tongue Scrapers & Pit Stains 
17:20 Clean Deodorant Swaps & The Sticker Shock of Organic Cotton 
23:50 The Theology of a Cheerful Giver (1 Corinthians 9) 
27:10 Chrissy’s Testimony: Blessed to Be a Blessing 
31:40 Creating a "Blessing Fund" & Finding Margin in Your Budget 
36:15 Tithing: Before or After Taxes? (Heart Posture vs. Accounting) 
41:20 Paul Tripp, Contentment, and Praying for Daily Bread 
48:00 Wrapping Up

Remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Connect With Us: 

Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama

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FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Transcript

Speaker 7 0:03

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Rombach.

Speaker 8 0:06

And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We're cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Speaker 7 0:14

From ancestral nutrition and natural remedies, to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how God intended us to live.

Speaker 9 0:22

So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship

Katie 0:33

Hey, Crunchy friends, and welcome back to another episode of Crunchy Stewardship. You're here with Katie and Chrissy, and we are excited to bring you another episode today. We are going to be focusing on giving and generosity. We thought it would be a nice, fun follow-up to our budgeting conversation that we had last week. We talked all about budgeting and planning for expenses when it comes to our health and wellness, and how to make some of those decisions. then this week, we are just kind of following up with the, the concept and the idea of giving and generosity, and the importance of it as believers and followers of Christ. But also, there are actually health benefits to generosity, which is just honestly, like, even thinking that, it just brings, like, a smile to my face, because you know that God planned things so perfectly if there are actual physical benefits to something that also has spiritual benefits and kingdom benefits, because when we give, we hopefully are giving towards, um, things and ministries that are helping to advance the gospel and the message of Christ around the world. And so there are just so many beautiful things about giving and generosity in general. But how cool is it that God also us some health benefits to it as well? And so we'll dive into a bit of that today. But before we do that, we're going to pass off the mic to Chrissy, who is going to share with us her random revelation of the week

Chrissy 2:24

Yes. So my random revelation of the week comes again from my, uh, nutritionist who I talked with at my birthing center. Um, she's pretty much... She leads our nutrition class for pregnancy and, um, labor and postpartum and everything like that, and she sent me a bunch of resources that I was kind of just reading through. And I found in one of them, she, one of the resources she sent was five things to look out for when reading food labels, which Katie and I have talked a bunch about this, like watch out for MSG, watch out for hidden sugar, watch out for preservatives, watch out for, um, synthetic materials, things like that, for food dyes. Well, she identified a source of MSG that I was completely unaware of. She identified in this, um I guess, file that she shared with me that MSG can still be present even if it's not listed on the food ingredient label because according to the FDA, it does not require MSG to be labeled unless the ingredient itself is 99% MSG. So there are some foods that do naturally have MSG in them, but oftentimes these foods are, the MSG comes naturally in it, and so it's paired with other nutrients and things like that that help to counterbalance the addictive part of it, so to say. So that's not the part that we're concerned about. So that's like saying, "Oh, well, you say to stay away from sugar, but fruit has sugar in it." Yes, fruit has sugar, but also fruit has fiber and vitamins and minerals and all these other things that help to, like, fortify the sugar and make it not so horrible for your body. It's not just like straight sugar. So MSG is in a lot of foods naturally occurring in addition to the other stuff that comes with it, which prevents you from having those addictive MSG, addictive and, um, endocrine-disrupting effects from the MSG. But there are some foods that particularly have increased levels of MSG in them because of the way that they are processed, and this MSG that increases from the processing is not required to be listed on the ingredient label because it's a byproduct of the processing, and it's not necessarily an ingredient that's added into it. So some of these things, some of you I'm sure are very aware of and probably already stay away from them if you're trying to eat crunchy. But I'm just going to rapid fire this list because it kinda blew my mind, some of them. Carrageenan, specifically E407, whatever that means, maltodextrin, which is a sugar, citric acid or citrate, any flavors or flavoring, including artificial flavors and natural flavors, barley malt or malt extract, pectin, soy sauce or soy extract, seasoning, bouillon, anything that's ultra-pasteurized, anything that's enzyme modified or contains enzymes, which is, like, a lot of things.

Katie 6:12

Yeah, citric acid alone actually is in tons of quote-unquote, like, healthy products, and it's one of those sneaky things. I think I've talked about it before, that, when you Google citric acid, it sounds very harmless, like it's, like, this acid that typically comes from lemons. But to mass produce it, it would take so many lemons to, like, get that specific form of the acid from them, that they actually make it from, uh, genetically modified corn or I think wheat or something like that,

Chrissy 6:48

Yep

Katie 6:48

pull it from there somehow. It's through their processing that they make it, and it's technically citric acid, but it comes from a different source. And so

Chrissy 6:59

It's, it comes from a not citrus source.

Katie 7:03

So it's, like, not... Yeah, it's, it's just so weird, and it, it acts as a preservative typically in foods. And so I've heard it across the board from most health podcasters and stuff that if it says citric acid on it, you can basically guarantee that it is the genetically modified corn version of it, unless they specifically say otherwise. And so it's kind of a bummer, 'cause citric acid is, like, you find it in so many things,

Chrissy 7:32

It's even in like, this is like the healthiest product on the market, and it still has citric acid in it. You know, all the more reason to just eat whole foods. The, the real best way to go is, did God create this food straight from the earth? Yes? Great. Have at it.

Katie 7:53

Yep

Chrissy 7:54

Hmm, maybe stay away. Because the processing of all of these foods, like soy sauce for instance, soy is a naturally occurring plant that God has created. Now, we have cultivated it and added a ton of pesticides and fertilizers and GMOs to this soy, which affect it, and then the processing of that soy to create soy sauce or soy extract then increases that MSG in it and creates that addicting effect to it and the hormone disruption. So it's very unfortunate, but thankfully we do have an answer and a solution to all of that, and that solution is to eat real food. And that's all I got for you.

Katie 8:42

Yep. Yes, it's good. So be aware of these things. I, there are definitely certain ingredients that I slide on a lot more than others. When I see MSG actually labeled on something, I will not eat that because now I have linked that to severe headaches for myself when I eat products with monosodium glutamate in

Chrissy 9:10

That's so funny. I have linked it to tachycardia in myself.

Katie 9:14

Ugh,

Chrissy 9:15

Whenever I have anything with MSG, I will be sitting on the couch and my heart rate's like chilling at 115. It's wild. Mm-hmm.

Katie 9:24

I should know, I should pay attention to that. I mean, again, I don't really eat it. If it, if I know for sure that something, like if I read a food label. Obviously, like if I'm at someone's house and they feed me something, most of the time I'm not gonna be like, "Hey, can I see the package for that hot dog over there?" Um, I, there are definitely times where I will, if people ask, like, "Hey, are there things that your family doesn't eat?" Or, "Do you have any allergies?" I will generally let them know, "These are things that I try to avoid, but please don't stress yourself out, like finding these things." But it also helps to like start those conversations of like, "Wait a minute, why do you avoid that? I'd like to know more." And, people are usually very, like I mean, how many times, like have you had people over and they're like, "Hey, I have a gluten allergy." And you're like, "Great, we'll just make sure we don't put any gluten in our meal tonight." Like, that's totally fine. Or if you have bread, you also add something else so that they don't have to eat that bread, they can have something else instead. people are usually very accommodating to that. And so I'm like, s- I know that some people are like, "Well, that seems too weird to be like, I, I don't do this." But it's so normal at the same time because so many people have food allergies, and we're usually, like people are usually very accommodating to these allergies. But just because it's a specific ingredient that sounds really strange, people are like, "I don't wanna say anything." And I'm like, "Well, I do because I want to feel good."

Chrissy 10:48

Yeah. I have to agree. I, I don't usually tell people a specific ingredient because I feel like my list of ingredients that I avoid is so long and cumbersome that it can be very difficult for somebody who doesn't eat naturally to accommodate. And so I will usually tell people, "Oh, I do my absolute best to eat whole foods or to avoid processed foods." And by saying that title, it's kind of an all-encompassing sort of thing. Now, if they serve something that I usually stay away from, I'll still probably eat it, more so out of respect for that person than... And, you know, just be intentional the next day to eat extra healthy, you know, to avoid any additional,

Katie 11:39

Yeah,

Chrissy 11:40

toxins being added to my body.

Katie 11:42

doing like a detox from our

Chrissy 11:44

Yeah

Katie 11:45

couple episodes, two episodes ago where we talked about detoxing. We, if we do go to someone's house and we've had heavily processed food, the next morning Wes and I will, like, only eat eggs with a bunch of butter because it just helps to, like, fortify your gut. And we'll have, like, we'll, if we have any, like, kefir at that time, we'll have, like, a little shot of kefir in the morning. And, you know, just again, bolstering up your gut and

Chrissy 12:06

You keep,

Katie 12:07

like-

Chrissy 12:08

do that, do you keep the egg yolks liquid or do you scramble them? Yeah

Katie 12:13

no, I really... So my journey with eggs, I used to hate eggs, and then when I got pregnant, I actually started craving eggs, and I'm sure that that probably had something to do with, like, a certain nutrient or vitamin that I was missing, and I started eating eggs more regularly. And now I really like them, but I don't like when they're, like, very eggy, if that makes sense.

Chrissy 12:35

Mm-hmm.

Katie 12:35

I like them when they're, like, fried w- to the point where they're, like, crispy almost.

Chrissy 12:40

Oh, I see

Katie 12:41

kind of, like, half scramble them up. I kind of, like, crack my egg f- with the full yolk in there, and then I kinda break the yolk so that way it's of mixed in, but I don't necessarily scramble it. Does that make sense? And then I,

Chrissy 12:54

I'm following.

Katie 12:55

Yeah.

Chrissy 12:55

Yes. Yes.

Katie 12:57

there's

Chrissy 12:57

I only ask that question because I know that, like, having an egg over medium or even over easy actually has a few more health benefits to, to than cooking the egg all the way through.

Katie 13:10

Mm-hmm

Chrissy 13:11

I don't exactly know what it is. I haven't looked into it. I, I eat my eggs according to my feels every morning. They're different every single morning.

Katie 13:19

know that because they, the- actually one of the things that I have learned is, um, o- one of the best first foods that you can give a baby is, like, runny egg yolk, and

Chrissy 13:32

Yes, I fully plan on that

Katie 13:34

Yeah, that was one of Malachi's first foods, and I know some people are like, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe it," because there could be so many egg allergies. I don't know, we just weren't really afraid of

Chrissy 13:45

But they've also done some research in introducing allergen

Katie 13:49

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy 13:51

Allergen foods early helps to prevent those allergies from forming.

Katie 13:56

Yep, yep.

Chrissy 13:57

So it's like eggs, peanut butter, um, nuts in general.

Katie 14:02

Fish

Chrissy 14:02

Obviously I'm not gonna give my baby a whole almond at six months old. Like, that's wild.

Katie 14:08

Yeah,

Chrissy 14:08

That's like a recipe for disaster.

Katie 14:11

our doctor recommended doing like a little dollop of peanut butter on your pinky and

Chrissy 14:15

Hmm.

Katie 14:16

like suck it off. And so yeah, we did that with Malachi, and he likes peanut butter, and he loves eggs. He eats eggs every morning. He likes his egg yolks runny. He does not like crispy eggs like Mama. And so if I accidentally overcook them, I'm like, "I guess this is Mama's egg, and then I'll make another one for you." Ugh. Okay. Well, let's get into our topic. Today we're talking a little bit more about money and generosity and giving and things. actually, I had an idea, Chrissy. I wanted to start this episode kind of like continuing our conversation from last week and then a little bit into generosity more so. But I'd love to have a moment of crunchy confessions, and, uh, we- I'd love to know, have you ever purchased something that was crunchy that you regretted or didn't find as much benefit from or, yeah, like basically, like you wasted your money on this, like healthy thing

Chrissy 15:18

Definitely. Um, I wasn't prepared for this question. You didn't give me time to come up with my answer

Katie 15:26

I know. Well, then maybe I'll share mine first, 'cause I did have o- at least one thought. And I actually came up with this 'cause I was randomly scrolling on Facebook the other day, and someone posted in one of the crunchy Facebook groups I'm a part of that they said, like, you know, "Crunchy confessions, what, what thing have you purchased that you totally regretted or didn't find benefit in from?" Or, I mean, people even were, like, sharing things that they purchased and would like to keep purchasing, but it's just too expensive and they, like, can't keep up with it. So one thing that I have purchased that I'm like, "I don't know if this was worth it," and thankfully it was not very expensive, but, um, a tongue scraper. So have heard a lot of benefit from, like, you know, doing tongue scraping, and, like, getting off all the bacteria, and getting off, like, food and things that are stuck. And they're super inexpensive, so I was just like, "Yeah, I'll just, like, buy a pair on Amazon." And Wes has, like, maybe used his once, then I have... I used mine a decent amount in the beginning, but I forget often because it's just not a part of my normal dental routine, like cleaning routine. And yeah, I just, like, don't really use it.

Chrissy 16:44

Yeah.

Katie 16:44

like, "Why did I buy this?"

Chrissy 16:46

What's the difference between scraping your tongue and brushing your tongue?

Katie 16:49

Um, it's supposed to, like, actually pull things off versus, like, sometimes when you just brush it, it doesn't... I don't know. There was a dentist that, the one dental guy, uh, the, uh, I think the account was called Ask the Dentist, and he

Chrissy 17:04

I know. Not Weston A. Price?

Katie 17:06

No. No, not Weston A. Price, my favorite dentist. This is my

Chrissy 17:11

That's funny

Katie 17:12

who talks about this

Chrissy 17:14

Interesting. Okay, so now that you said that, there are actually two items. Um, the one I think I've actually mentioned on here before, but I continued to buy it even though I didn't love it. It was my, um, conditioner from Avalon Organics. Um, when I first switched to the natural conditioner, I really despised how it, like, didn't make my hair feel silky smooth immediately upon putting the conditioner in my hair. And I felt like my hair was just a little bit more stringy and a little bit more frizzy on a daily basis. Um, but then I ran out of conditioner, and I didn't feel like doing more research because I needed conditioner, and I didn't have time, so I just bought another bottle of it, but I got a different scent, and I just, like, glanced at the ingredients when I bought it, and I was like, "Okay, ingredients are still good. We'll give this scent a shot." And I like the second one better. Um, it's the lavender scent rather than the Thickening vitamin B complex whatever I got the first time. Um, it's better. I actually... My hair's just, like, normal now. Like, I don't- it's not exceptionally shiny. It's not exceptionally frizzy. It's not exceptionally stringy. And one nice thing I have actually noticed from it from using long-term now is I went from when I used Pantene in college, having to wash my hair every single night, to now I wash my hair, I think, maybe every four days, which is pretty impressive to me 'cause I didn't even try to do that. It kinda just happened, um, through using the more natural ingredient things. Um, so that was one. Second one that I got that wasn't, like, uber crunchy, but it was more so on, like, the, the more natural ingredient side and not as toxic was, um... And we actually didn't finish v- using this one. We just threw it away. It was the Squatch deodorant. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's, like, Big Squ- Squatch Sasquatch. I don't know. It has a brown bottle.

Katie 19:42

Oh

Chrissy 19:43

Max used it for a while, for literally a week, and then all of his shirts got pit stains in them. And then I was like, "Oh, well, maybe it's just a you problem." So I was like, "I'll finish it up." And then all my shirts got pit stains in them, and I was very frustrated and worked two high heavens to get the stains out. But that deodorant went in the trash, so... And we won't...

Katie 20:10

use now?

Chrissy 20:11

I actually just switched to a new one. It is sold at, uh, Whole Foods, and I love it. It's called, mm, Cleo, something and Cleo. Cleo and Coco It's called Cleo Coco deodorant. Um, it actually does a really good job at masking odor throughout the day. Um, on ex- extra sweaty days when it's like 105 degrees outside with like 90% humidity, I do have to reapply around 3:00. But

Katie 20:51

in any situation

Chrissy 20:52

yeah. And maybe if I work out I'll have to reapply it. Quite honestly, I started using it at the beginning of pregnancy, and haven't really done a super intense workout since becoming pregnant,

Katie 21:05

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy 21:06

'cause that just doesn't seem desirable to me at this point. Um, but it, it's great for like my normal day-to-day of like going to work. I mean, like I'm outside half the day during work anyways. Max and I go on walks in the evening, and I'm fine wearing it. Um, yeah, I love it. Much better than the, the Squatch deodorant that we got. If anyone knows what I'm talking about with the Squatch deodorant, you can maybe comment, let me know what it's actually called, because I don't remember. I didn't like it.

Katie 21:42

I had a deodorant too that left pit stains, and I am also failing to remember what it was. It w- it was a green colored deodorant, like the, uh, yeah, deodorant itself I think was green. Or maybe the bottle was green. I don't remember. But same thing, I don't, I don't think I ended up finishing it. And the only reason I started using that was I did run out of my favorite deodorant, that is my clean, natural one that I use now, and realize that I didn't... Like, I usually have, I usually buy, like, two or so at a time, so that way I don't have to, like, scramble to, you know, get it the next time, and I thought I had another one. Anyway, then I had this leftover one that I had from a while ago, so I was forced to use it until my other one came. And yeah, same thing. It gave my shirts all pit stains and it was unfortunate.

Chrissy 22:37

Yes

Katie 22:38

my, my deodorant that I use now is Little Seed Farms, and it is different than regular deodorant. It's not like a roll- like a stick that you roll on your

Chrissy 22:48

Oh.

Katie 22:49

It's actually like a cream that you, like, wipe onto your armpits. So it's, like, different. Definitely, like, takes time to get used to.

Chrissy 22:57

Does it get stuck to your fingers?

Katie 23:01

I mean, kind of. They, they give you, if you want to use it, like a application, kind of almost like a Popsicle stick thing. I don't even know how to explain it. But I don't, I actually find it harder to apply it like that. And I don't know, it's kind of like putting on, like, face cream or something, where y- you just put it on, and then if it's left, if there's residue on your fingers. It's not... Like, you know deodorant, you th- I, you're not... It's, it's more of, like, a lotion

Chrissy 23:28

Okay

Katie 23:28

cr- or, or like a face cream consistency, maybe a little thicker than either, than both of those. But it's not like deodorant, where it's, like, almost, like,

Chrissy 23:38

Sticky and gross. Yeah. Okay. I'm following

Katie 23:43

Okay, my, my last crunchy confession that I wanted to share, um, a recent purchase that I actually saved up for this, but then decided to return it because I just couldn't stomach how much I paid for it. Because I was like, "I know I saved to buy this," but I'm like, "I still couldn't do it." I have been really wanting to keep switching to more organic cotton and I've been doing that with

Chrissy 24:11

Now that is an expensive feat.

Katie 24:14

Yes.

Chrissy 24:15

Yes

Katie 24:16

again, like, I've been saving up here and there for, like, replacing certain pieces of clothing, and I've purchased a few dresses and some shorts and shirts, and I've been really, really enjoying them. I buy most of them from Pact, P-A-C-T.

Chrissy 24:33

Which, by the way, are sold at Whole Foods.

Katie 24:36

No kidding. I didn't know

Chrissy 24:38

Yeah

Katie 24:38

Not that I have a Whole Foods near me, but

Chrissy 24:41

Well, I do, and a lot of our listeners do, I'm sure, so

Katie 24:45

Yes. I do not. I don't even know if they have one in Traverse City. Maybe they do. Um, anyway, so I've been buying some things there, and I finally saved up to buy, like, their five-pack of organic, like 100% organic cotton underwear. And yeah, I just purchased it recently, and I checked to make sure, like, what their return policy was in case it was, like, the wrong size or whatever. And they fit fine, but I was like, "Man, these are so expensive," and I just, I couldn't keep them because I was like, "These underwear are so..." It's like, I think it's like $65 for the pack, but then when you pay for shipping and taxes, it came out to, like, 70-something dollars. So I'm

Chrissy 25:36

That's crazy

Katie 25:38

I like... Again, I had saved up for these knowing that it was going to be this expensive. Like, I knew that. But for some reason, I just, like, I got them and I'm like, "I can't. I just can't do it. I, I

Chrissy 25:51

Okay, you know where you need to look?

Katie 25:53

undies."

Chrissy 25:53

You know where you need to look is Quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E. I bought organic underwear from them. Unfortunately, they were the wrong size, and from a personal perspective, I didn't even honestly look at the return policy, 'cause my mom always told me growing up you never return bathing suits or underwear after you've worn them because it's disgusting. And so I got these underwear, and they were the wrong size, and it made me very sad, and so couldn't wear them. But I also got Max a p- like a five-pack, and he a- he likes his. He enjoys them. Um, he does say, like, they're not as comfortable as his,

Katie 26:40

Like

Chrissy 26:40

American Eagle underwear, but I'm like, "Yeah, that's 'cause it's fully polyester versus cotton, and sorry about it."

Katie 26:49

Now, okay,

Chrissy 26:50

he's grown to like them

Katie 26:52

I do think I looked into them at one point. you know if they're actually 100% cotton? Because I feel like when I looked them up, it wasn't 100%. And so this is where I made my, kind of like my concession of I... The ones that are 100% and especially organic cotton, super expensive. I ended up returning the ones that I just purchased from Pact, and I ended up getting a pair of organic cotton ones from, excuse me, from Sam's Club. They're, they're made by Gap, but they do, they're like 95% organic cotton and then 5% spandex for the

Chrissy 27:42

You know, now that I'm looking at, I just Googled Quince. They are 95% cotton and 5% spandex. I think the spandex is in, like, the seams.

Katie 27:53

band, yeah.

Chrissy 27:54

Yeah. Which,

Katie 27:55

s-

Chrissy 27:55

like, to me, I'm like, that is so much better than wearing full polyester, and I'll take it if the five-pack is gonna be $35 versus $65. Wow, did you hear that thunder?

Katie 28:07

No, but did it also lightning? 'Cause I feel like I saw a flash

Chrissy 28:10

Oh yeah, it's been lightning this whole time, and the- it's like pouring outside, but that thunder was so loud.

Katie 28:16

Wow, that's wild.

Chrissy 28:17

That's crazy. Anyways, sorry. Okay.

Katie 28:21

But yes, that is where I literally returned them after I, like, tried it on and I was like... And I left them on my dresser for so long and I was like, "No, I can't do this." I just, they're so expensive

Chrissy 28:33

I cannot wear $65 pairs of underwear

Katie 28:36

like, not that fancy. again, even though I saved up for it and full- Like, there's definitely things that I'm like, "This is so expensive. I can't believe I own this and I bought this." But it's like I saved up for it, but I feel good. Our air filters are one of those things. They're so expensive. They're like $800 each, and I'm like, "This

Chrissy 28:54

I have those air filters on my baby registry.

Katie 28:57

Yes. So I, I love them, but they were, they were a pretty penny,

Chrissy 29:04

Yes

Katie 29:04

it kind of hurt to buy them. But then I was like, "No, I'm, I actually, I love them and I feel good with them." But the underwear I could not do. Okay, let's stop talking about undies now.

Chrissy 29:15

We're 30 minutes into the episode and going to start the main topic for today's episode

Katie 29:21

Yes. Why don't you kick us off with giving and generosity and yeah

Chrissy 29:28

healthfully. So I, as I was, I was reflecting on last week, um, Max and I went to a conference, and they were talking about support raising and giving altogether. On like, the mindset to have when raising support to go on a trip or raising your own salary or anything like that, and also the mindset to have when giving to people who are going on a trip or raising their own salary or just giving in general. And it really got me thinking about kind of the heart behind giving, and it kind of clicked and I was like, wait a minute. So much of health in general is your mindset and your heart posture coming to something. As we've talked about before, you know, if you're trying to make all these changes, and you're getting so overwhelmed and stressed about it, it's going to be more destructive for your health than the changes in eating naturally and getting rid of the preservatives and toxins in your life would actually benefit you. Because the stress, like, counters that. And so similarly with giving, the Bible gives us a lot of health insight into how giving affects our health overall and benefits us. So the first one that, like, immediately comes to mind when I think about this is the heart of a cheerful giver. In 1 Corinthians 9:7, it says, "Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." And I, I just kinda like sat and meditated on that for a little bit, and I was like, okay, but like, why does God love the cheerful giver so much? Like, so much more so than a reluctant or a someone who's giving out of compulsion to do so. And, um, I, I think pers- like, from my perspective, it goes back to, like, you know, God loves when we choose Him. Even though He loves us unconditionally overall, but when we choose Him and we choose to follow Him, like, those actions are what He loves. He says He, He loves when we follow Him and hates sin. So He hates anything that goes against Himself. And so giving out of compulsion or giving begrudgingly would really be against the Lord because of our heart posture. He sees and cares about our heart posture. And so it, it m- it made me think, like, why does God care so much about our heart posture, you know? And whether it was God's intention-- well, it probably was partially God's intention, that our heart postures really would affect our overall health and wellbeing, because He wants His people to be healthy and to be able to do the work that He has set before them to do, the good work for the glory of God, you know? And, um, a lot of that work, you really need to be healthy in order to do it. So that was, like, the first thing that I really thought of when we started, when I started thinking through this. And then I kinda did a little bit of a deeper dive of, like, the heart posture behind giving. And in Acts, um, it says that it is more blessed to give than to receive, is the Lor- the words that Jesus said Himself. Um- And the, the thought of, like, it's be- it's more blessed to give than to receive, then clearly the blessing that I receive from giving is greater than the blessing that I receive from receiving, whatever it might be. And, um, I have to say personally in my life, that has just been so true. I, the, it makes me think back to this story, and I, I don't know if I, hmm, yeah, I'm gonna share it. We'll just share it anyways. So, um, in our family, I am the saver, Max is the spender. But I am also the one that has a very, um, swayable heart. And so when somebody's on stage saying they need money, I'm like, "Here you go." And Max is like, "No." So if, if that gives you any perspective on our two perspectives on money. And at one point last year, the Lord put it on Max's heart to give a significant sum of money to our pastor who was going to plant a church in a different city. And, um, it was a large sum of money that we had originally planned what to do with it, and then our plans changed. And so we had this money sitting in a savings account, and it didn't have anywhere to go yet. Um, and we very easily could have reallocated it somewhere else. Like, there's always somewhere to put the money, you know? Um, but we just hadn't had that conversation yet. And so he sat on this decision for three weeks and didn't tell me about it. He was like, "You know, I feel like the Lord is telling me to give this sum of money, and I don't really want to. It's kinda big, and I don't know what Chrissy's gonna say about it," full well knowing that I'm the one being like, "Oh, they have a need? Okay. Here you go." You know? That's just how I am. And so he sat on it for three weeks, and then in the middle of church, of course they did a sermon series on giving. Not even a sermon series. I think it was just, like, a singular sermon that the pastor mentioned giving. And he leaned over to me, he's like, "Hey," like in the middle of service, and whispers in my ear. He's like, "God's been telling me for three weeks to give this much to these people." For their church. Not, no, it wasn't even for their church. It was for their personal expenses as they were moving. Like,

Katie 35:56

No

Chrissy 35:57

not for the church itself. And I literally looked at him and I was like, "Okay." He just, like, did not think about it. I, I knew we had the money in that account, and it wasn't allocated to anything at that time, and so I was like, "All right. Whatever." And he's over there kinda freaking out, like, "There's so many other places we can put it, blah, blah, blah." Anyways, we go up to our pastor after service, and we told him, "Hey, the Lord has put it on our hearts to give you this sum of money." And he said, "No way. Seriously?" And we were like, "Yeah, why?" And he said, "My wife and I just sat down last night, and we are that exact amount short to be able to move,

Katie 36:36

Wow

Chrissy 36:37

like, in two weeks."

Katie 36:39

Wow

Chrissy 36:41

we, we were just baffled. And I kinda think back, and I'm like, wow, the Lord knew that G- that Max was going to sit on this decision for three weeks. And so he started the thought in Max's mind, like, three weeks prior to our pastor even realizing that he needed this amount. And overall, I have to say, like, the entire rest of the day, I was kind of just, like, on cloud nine. Like, the rest of the day just felt so much better

Katie 37:12

Hmm.

Chrissy 37:13

because we were able to fulfill that need so specifically, and it was so obvious that it was from the Lord, and that God ordained all of it and used us to further advance his kingdom. And so that's just, like, a little personal testimony on, like, the, the Bible verse that says in Acts 20, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And yes, they were blessed to receive that sum of money, but it was more like a relief to them. Whereas for us, it was, like, a encouragement and, like, a, a spurring us on to continue to do things like that kind of thing, you know?

Katie 37:58

Yeah, I seen and heard of so many testimonies of people stepping into faith and giving, and then God showing up in really cool ways. And so th- so I started coaching with Seed Time, um, now, and I've been helping with this program called Mission Driven Millionaire, and just this idea of, like, like being on mission, getting your finances totally in order so you can just continue to give and bless. And yeah, just be an outrageous giver all the time, constantly. Not, not when you become a millionaire, but have this mindset of like, "Yes, I have the money to be able to participate in gospel advancement." And there have been a lot of really cool testimonies coming from it, where people started building budgets pretty much for the first time in their lives. then because now they're, like, stewarding their resources, they realize they have a lot more money to be able to actually give. Like, people come to us and they're like, "Oh, like, I don't have money to give. Like, I barely have money to pay my bills." And then they build a budget, and they build that margin in their finances, and they're like, "Oh my gosh, I actually have hundreds of dollars that I really... Like, they're, they're going to things that I don't need," or, "I've been throwing them out the door at these different things that I didn't really realize I was spending this much money on." And, and then you actually have that freedom to do that. I mean, when Wes and I first built a budget the first time, like many, many years ago, I tracked my finances, and I saw that I was spending, like, hundreds of dollars on, like, little coffee runs. 'Cause at the time, I was as a property manager, and I was driving around the city. I would be driving, like, 100 miles a day on a company car, and my office was my car, basically, because I was, like, all around the city.

Chrissy 39:59

I know that feeling.

Katie 40:01

shops and buying a coffee and maybe a little muffin or a snack or something like that. And so I'd, the... You know, it would be like five to $10 a time, and it doesn't sound like a lot of money, but I was doing that very consistently. And, and in my mind, I was sp- spending, like, maybe $100 a month, but it was closer to, like, $400 a month, and I was, like, outraged at myself of like how much it actually was. And because I just never knew where that money was going. Like, I didn't, I didn't understand how much it was, because I had never actually tracked it. And then once we did that and actually set a budget, we realized we could actually give more, which we weren't... We were giving, but we weren't giving as much as we would have liked to at the time. so we were able to give more, and we were also able to, like, increase... Because this has been really important to us, is, um, we love hosting people, but that also means that your grocery budget is larger, too, because- If you're providing lots of meals for people other than just who's in your household, your grocery budget goes up. And so we increased our grocery budget many years ago because of that, because we just wanted to provide meals and a place for people to come and hang out and have, you know, meaningful conversations, and we still do that now. Um, and so it's just, like, y- understanding where your money is going so that you can make... like, have that margin to then give more generously. But we also... So we have our regular church giving that we do on a monthly basis, but then we also created what we call, like, a blessing fund. And so we actually have, like, a line item in our budget that is just designed to give away how we see fit. Like, it's not... Like, it might be, yeah, that missionary who comes to church, and they're like, "Hey, we are needing funds for whatever." Or it could be someone who, like, doesn't have money to pay for gas, and we're like, "Yeah, we just wanna bless this person with, you know, 100 bucks to go get a tank of gas." Or, you know, just wherever the need is, it just gives us a little bit more freedom in the month to, to give. And actually, what was actually really fun was last month, hadn't given that money away yet, and it was at the very end of the month, and we were like, "We still have, like, $100 sitting in this specific budget account. What should we give?" And so, like, or, "Where should we give this money?" And it was so fun to just have that conversation, to be like, "Where have we seen a need?" It, like, helps keep you more alert to the needs of others, and, and even just, like, different ministries that are on your heart that month and stuff. And so it's just, like, fun to have those conversations and be able to give more. And yeah, like, when we reworked our budget when we moved into our house, that was the one thing. Like, both of us were like, "We wanna be able to give more." And so people that we were supporting, we were able to increase, um, those amounts and stuff. And so it's just, like... It's, I- it is. It's a lot. There's a lot of joy in it. what's also interesting as a money coach is having these conversations with people who reach out, you know, obviously sharing lots of good testimonies. But, uh, we... I actually got an email today that this guy was asking specifics on- How much he should give slash like when he should give slash should he give before or after taxes, and he owns a business, and should he be giving from the business, and how much, and should it be after the business expenses, and all these things. Like, it was very... Like, all these very technical questions. Basically, like wanting to know how to, like, do it all accounting-wise. And I responded with him, responded to him this nice video message. I like to send video messages because it seems a little bit more personal than just, like, a little email, right? And so I sent him an email basically saying, like, like, I... First off, I think it's awesome when people are asking these questions, that you, you want to be giving. You have that heart for generosity. But the same point, don't know that God particularly really cares about the, the nitty-gritty accounting details, but rather He wants to have your heart in the right place. And so if you're asking, I give before or after taxes?" Because if you give after taxes, you're going to be giving less, and that sounds better to you because then you'll have more money to do other things with, versus if you give before you pay taxes, it's going to be a larger amount if you're doing it percentage-wise, right? So if you're thinking about it like 10% or whatever it is that you feel called to give, before taxes it's going to be a larger amount. But after those takes, taxes have been taken out, it'll be a smaller amount from your profits. So if your heart posture is that, then maybe God is actually calling you to give before taxes are taken out because He really wants you to trust Him, that He will continue to provide, your, your expenses will get taken care of, you will still have enough. You know, it really comes down to where your heart is at with, with the giving and the generosity versus, am I doing this exactly right? Because if you're thinking about it like in a, is God going to judge me for doing it incorrectly, that's having like an old covenant mindset, right? Where, where it's like you must give 10%, it must be from your first fruits. It, you know, and then not only that, not only were you supposed to be giving the 10% tax, like or 10% tithe, like you're giving to the church. Tithe just means 10%, so that's kind of a, a redundant 10% tithe. Um, but they also had other giving obligations that came every few years so that in certain years when they'd have certain festivals, were giving close to 20 and 30% of your which at that time was typically like in livestock and, um, crops. But you'd be giving a much larger percentage those specific years. And so if, if you were looking to the Old Testament to be like, "I must give the 10% because if I don't, like then I won't receive the blessings and I won't, you know, I won't be in favor with God," that's having that same Old Testament or old covenant mindset versus- I really just want to glorify and honor God because He sent Jesus to die on behalf of my sins, and He paid all of my debt. Like, all of my sins have been forgiven, and so therefore, I understand, like, everything that I have is His already, and I just want to give abundantly. It really should push us to give more and to give more freely and to give more excitedly and open-handedly. Like, all these things. Like, the, what, what Paul was saying in, um, 1 Corinthians, what is it, 7? that it, like, you need to, that, that we should Or 1 Corinthians, what is it, 9:7. Um, or 2 Corinthians. W- gosh, the one where he's talking about where

Chrissy 47:13

Corinthians 9:7.

Katie 47:15

Thank you.

Chrissy 47:16

You're welcome.

Katie 47:17

We shouldn't give under compulsion, and we shouldn't give reluctantly. Like, we shouldn't be sitting here like, "Oh," like, "well, should I give this much or that much, or is it this percentage or that or this, before taxes, after?" Like, when we get into those nitty-gritty, it's really showing us, or it's really revealing to ourselves that, like, maybe there's something a little off in our heart, and God is asking you to just give it all, basically. And may- and I'm using that kind of, like, figuratively. Like, just, He just wants us to give. Like, He wants us to love giving because we get to be a part of what He's doing. the money isn't ours to begin with. Like, it is His. And yeah. I always There's that one quote, I don't know if you've ever heard it, where, you know, there's, like, a tax accountant who takes care of the finances for some billionaire, and then the billionaire dies one day, and his buddy's like, "Hey, that billionaire that just died, how much did he leave behind?" And the accountant goes, "Well, all of it." And it's like, yeah, none of it was yours to begin with. Like, you, like it wasn't, like, it's like of it did not go with him to heaven. And we, we wanna give now, today, so that way it's not like billions of dollars are sitting around, because who knows, how it's gonna be used after you die? Like, you want to participate today, now, and know where that money's going and that it is advancing the gospel. So-

Chrissy 48:44

And I also wanna provide a little bit of encouragement for someone who's like, "Oh my gosh, I've never given, and I feel like I live paycheck to paycheck even though I have a budget, and, you know, like, should I even give, like, this small amount of $25? Like, what does my $25 even do?" I wanna encourage you that in addition to the heart g- heart posture behind giving, God also promises blessing with that. He said it's, it's more blessed to give than to receive. He also says- In, uh, 2 Corinthians 9:6, right before he says that you should have a joyful heart in giving, he says, "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." And I have to say, like, that is one of the harder convictions to follow in scripture, personally. And I think a lot of people can agree that, like, yes, God calls us to give, and a lot of times in scripture, especially in the Gospels, like, Jesus highlights the people who are giving sacrificially. For instance, the woman who gives the two talents versus the wealthy man who gives, I don't even know how much, a lot. And the wealthy man gave out of a portion of his abundance, and the widow gave all that she had, even though it was only, like, two talents. And Jesus told his disciples, "She has given more, and therefore she will be more blessed, and she will reap more abundantly in heaven," because her heart posture is one of more surrender to the Lord. And God specifically promises us that if we are surrendered to Him in every aspect of our lives, our health, our wealth, our money, our children, our life, our houses, everything like that, if we are surrendered to Him, He will take care of us. And that is not... Like, it's, it's not an option for God. Like, He promises that it will happen. Now, He does not promise how it will happen or what exactly it will look like. And so I think a lot of people take that, that verse that I just mentioned, "Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly. Whoever sows generously will reap generously," and they think of that specifically just in, like, financial terms, and that's not always the case. Because obviously, if you're giving $50, you're not going to automatically receive $100 back. Like, that's just not how it goes. But by giving that amount of money, you reap generously in terms of your mindset, your joy, your outlook on life, and also, like- A lot of people say that this could be a, a selfish motivation, but let it be your motivation that you would reap abundantly in heaven. Because as we obey God this side of heaven, you know, it affects what our eternity is going to look like. And so, um, yeah, following, following the Lord, He promises to provide for us. And I think giving sacrificially, I know personally when we have given sacrificially, the, the Lord has just made it work. Like, He has provided in every way, shape, or form more so than we could ask or imagine. And oftentimes in more than just financial means. He's provided in, like, emotional, uh, abundance and spiritual abundance, and our, our relationship with God gets closer, and suddenly tho- those little things that were so stressful before are just not anymore because our focus is on the Lord. He says, um, in da, da, da, in Matthew chapter 6, he says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." And so as we place our money in- intentionally put our money in places, it is an immediate re- an immediate reflection on our heart posture and where we put our, um, our cares. What exactly in the world do we care about the most?

Katie 53:30

That's a good point. You actually, you kind of mentioned a little bit about, like, what is the purpose of the money that we are even given to begin with? Because if we are, if we're expecting that we're gonna give money away and then get stuff back, it, it kinda defeats, like, w- like, that makes money about us, right? It makes money about your own comforts, your own security, your own happiness and pleasures versus the fact that we are taught from so many of the disciples that the money that we are given is not for ourselves, but for the benefit of others. And so I think it's also in 2 Corinthians 9, um, I think it's

Chrissy 54:20

2 Corinthians is just loaded with financial wisdom.

Katie 54:23

Like, gosh, I think, yeah, it's all in... 2 Corinthians 9, I think it's a few verses later after ones we've talked about. But it's like you will be made rich, um, like in every way so that you can be generous, like, on every occasion, basically. It's like, uh, you are, you're given money, like, God gives you money so you can go be generous to others.

Chrissy 54:45

Well, he even says that in, I think, Genesis, um, with the blessing of Abraham. He blesses Abraham, who, mind you, was a very wealthy man. Um, and he tells Abraham, "You are blessed to be a blessing." Like, God blesses us in order to further that along for the Kingdom of God. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are not blessed for our own benefit. And yes, it does benefit us when we give and we bless others. It- there's, like, a, a secondary benefit to us, but that's not the sole purpose of the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon us and trusted us with

Katie 55:27

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. And I think it's also in maybe one of the Peters, one of the Peter books that talks about how, like, w- we're given everything we need, in order to live a godly life. And so again, it's like that idea of like... I, I mean, even, so Paul Tripp, my favorite book that I love recommending to people is called Redeeming Money, and it's by Paul Tripp. And he goes through actually the Lord's Prayer, and he talks about, you know, um- What, what is the part in it? Um, when you ask for your daily bread, so, you know, the part of the prayer where it's like, um, asking for the daily bread, but it's,

Chrissy 56:10

Rest this day our daily bread

Katie 56:13

Yes, thank you. I'm, like, forgetting the exact words at this moment. Um, it, it's not only, like, a prayer of asking for what need. Like, it's- it's- yes, it's like, "Okay, Lord, I... Like, provide for me the things that I need." But it's also a prayer for being content, like a contentment prayer of, like, God... Again, Chrissy mentioned this. God will provide for you exactly what you need. You need to learn to be content with what God has provided you, because He provides for you exactly what you need. And so if you feel like you're in a place where have too little money or too little resources or too little of something, instead of just saying, "I need more, Lord. I pr- please bless me and provide for me," and all these things, I would recommend changing that prayer and just asking, "Lord, help me to live on the me- the things that you have given me, and be content with that. Like, if- if you have given me only $2,000 to live on every single month, me to live within that budget and be content with that." And it's, that might mean putting together a budget so that you can be a good steward of those resources. Like, I really do believe that a budget is one of those, one of the most incredible tools that we have at our disposal as Christians, because it really, shows the Lord that we are, we want to be responsible, that we, we can be responsible, that we are good stewards of the resources that He has given us, and that we can manage it well. Because again, like, I don't, I don't even know where this Bible verse is, but it's the one, it's like... Well, I mean, it's kind of like the parable of the talents. Like, if you can show that you are faithful with little, He will know that you can be faithful with more. And so if He's giving you $2,000 a month to live on, and you keep grumbling and complaining about what He has given you, instead of figuring out how to live on a budget with that much money and being content- He's not going to give you more if you can't figure out how to just manage the little bit that he's given you, when he knows that it is enough for you to do something with right now, right here. And so he wants to see that you'll be faithful and give the $10 that you can... Like, the only $10 that you can give. Like, he wants to know that you will give that and trust him with that so that he can entrust you with more. And then, yeah, at that point, you can continue to give more and more, like, larger amounts. But we- he sees the more in the little, tiny, minuscule amounts, just like that widow who gave, yeah, the two coins. So it's like, he's... It's, it's like a test. And I hate saying that because I'm like, I don't... I like... uh, y- it, it is, but it isn't. Like, you know, it's not like God's like, "Hmm, let me see what he's gonna do right now," you know? But at the same time, think he kind of does. Like, he's like, "I, I wanna know that you can be responsible." And I think as parents, we kind of do the same things. As our kids get older and mature, we want to know that they're mature enough to handle certain things. You know, I, I think there's the Anne Frank quote suitcases. Do you know where I'm going? Do you, have you heard this one before? So

Chrissy 59:54

Nope. Have to say, I didn't really look much into Anne Frank growing up.

Katie 1:00:00

Okay. And I only know this quote because I, I think it's, it makes so much sense in, in, in so many applications. But there's, it's like a heavy suitcase, and she's like, "No, Dad, I've got it. I'll, I'll carry the suitcase." And he's like, "No, no, honey, this... Like, you could potentially, you know, drag it along and it's gonna be really heavy, but I will carry this because there are some burdens that are too heavy for little children to bear." And it's like you need to get to a point where you're strong enough to bear certain burdens, and it's just that, like, it's just that maturing. Like, there are certain things in life that parents want to see their kids are strong enough to handle. And so, like, there are reasons why we don't share our, with our kids all of our money struggles that we might be having as a family, because that's not a child's responsibility. It's a parent's responsibility to manage that. And so you don't want to, like, burden your children with the stresses of finances when they're too young to handle it. So it's the same reason why God, I think, takes His time with seeing if you are faithfully mature enough, like spiritually mature enough, to handle more money. And yeah, then you start asking questions of like, well, why are certain people blessed with lots of money and they clearly aren't Christians and all this stuff? And, um, there's what the... I don't know where this is, maybe somewhere in the Old Testament. But, you know, when, when it rains, it rains on the faithful and the unfaithful, you know? Like the Christians and non-Christians. Like the rain will... And, and in this, in the is- ugh. In this instance... Gosh, I'm, like, stumbling on my words 'cause I know that we're also up on our time. The rain is the blessing when they had their crops, you know? It was good, it was good fortunes when you would have rain on your crops because it made your crops grow, and that was a good thing. But it's like when it rains, the rain doesn't just choose to rain on the people who follow God versus not. I mean, God could do that definitely, but it's like everybody's blessed. It's like common, common grace,

Chrissy 1:02:13

And, and also I think there, there is a level, like when it comes to asking the question of like, "Well, why do people who don't follow Christ, like, why do, why are they so wealthy and I'm over here like still trying to make it paycheck to paycheck?" And I think there's also the spiritual component of that, of the enemy is also at work here. And oftentimes,

Katie 1:02:37

Oh

Chrissy 1:02:37

as we have all experienced, comfort and security are very powerful tools that the enemy uses to keep people away from coming to know Jesus. Because ultimately coming to know Jesus is surrendering and saying, "God, I can't do this on my own. I need you to help me." And if the enemy can keep individuals in a very comfortable, secure position to say, "I don't need the Lord, I can handle all of this on my own. I got enough to cover it," then the enemy has won their soul, and that's what he wants. But God calls us to something greater. God calls us to surrender. God calls us and He says, "I love you so much, I gave everything. I gave my life For your sake, so that you can come to me freely, so that you can honor me with everything that you have and everything that you are and everything that you do, so that I can be with you and I can bless you abundantly in those ways, in everything that you are and everything that you say and everything that you do. You know? And God's promise is that He is with us no matter what happens, no matter where we go. He doesn't promise that the Christian life is gonna be rainbows and butterflies, because it's not. Like, life is not rainbows and butterflies this side of heaven. But when God is with us, we have that joy that comes with it, and the sacrifices are not so big, you know, because God is with us, and He's bigger than all of the sacrifices that we can make. And so I just wanna leave you guys with that. As we are coming to a close on our episode, um, some extra thoughts to linger on. I would encourage you to go ahead and do your own Bible study on what it means to be a cheerful giver. And how does giving affect your health and your mental health, your spiritual health, emotional health overall? Because it does. And it's a very important aspect of it. We, we say on this podcast quite frequently that health has five different aspects to it. There's physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, and financial. And giving is part of that financial health that benefits the rest of them. So I would encourage you, go do your own Bible study on this. See what God actually has to say about giving, and don't just leave it at that. Take action, because that's what God wants. You know, the Bible means nothing if you're not gonna do anything from it. It's living and active. It's sharper than a two-edged sword. So allow it to penetrate your soul. Allow it to work in your life so that you can commune with the Lord and draw nearer to Him and feel His presence on a daily basis and, um, as you go about your day and in your conversations and things like that. So I'm gonna leave you guys with that one. And to close our episode, one last food for thought. Remember that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We'll see you guys next time. Thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship.