#Debts

 It was our first Christmas as husband and wife.  We were living sparsely in an efficiency apartment and had no money to spare.  I am sorry to say that I do not remember what I gave my husband, but I do remember what he gave me.  It was beyond my imagination and way out of our budget.  He gave me a crisp new 50 dollar bill!  There were no stipulations going with it.  It was mine.

I had never owned a credit card, nor borrowed any money and debt was foreign to me, until.  Until, we decided to purchase a television set and chose to (because we had to) buy this set on time.  We had not had any monthly payments, except for rent, and I really felt uncomfortable owing this debt.  I did not tell my husband what I thought about doing with my $50.00 gift and just did it.  Yes, I went to the store and paid off our television set.  I felt so proud of myself.  We were debt free, again.

I proudly shared with my husband what I had done with my gift and, of all things, he got mad at me.  He had wanted me to spend it on myself and I had misunderstood.  I thought I was doing something good, but he was confident that he could take care of the payments on our television and I interfered.

Several lessons I learned from this experience.  Sometimes, when we think we are doing good, we are only fowling up.  There is more at stake than our feelings.  The giver's feelings need to be considered because they are worthy.  The idea of being indebted has taken on new meaning,  I have learned to live with being indebted.  There are so, so very many people that I am indebted to and then there is God.  Each day is a gift that we can never repay the giver for.  Each breath we take is a gift and there is no way we can repay for that.  Salvation is a free gift to all and this gift is so costly that we can only take it with a grateful heart, grateful every day.  Health and family and home and job and sunshine and rain and country may be ours and the considered worth of these things makes us indebted.

God is so good.  He is the giver of good.  He deserves our praise and thanksgiving every waking moment.  We all live with debts much bigger than our ability to repay.  Our life, our being is the only acceptable thing that would give the giver satisfaction.  Telling Jesus "My life is in your hands." is the perfect response.