Contrary to what you learned from “Leave it to Beaver” or “The Brady Bunch” family peace is not something that naturally occurs. If you want peace for yourself and your family, you have to fight for it.
One of the core requirements for peace is security. If you are currently living on more then you make, have debt, or have inadequate savings, you have no security. There is no peace while waiting for the consequences of your bad money behavior to catch up with you.
I meet people all the time who know their financial situation is precarious. They know they are one illness, one car repair, one temporary job loss away from disaster – but they act as if they are ok with it. In conversation, I hear that they know they should do something, but it sounds as if they just do not want to do the work.
Are they too lazy, self-indulgent, or stupid to make the changes necessary to give their families security? No, they are none of these things. They are scared and they have lost hope. The debt looks insurmountable, the gap between income and expense too wide, the shame of facing their own failure too painful. So, their response is to quickly stick their heads back in the sand.
If you are one of these people, I want to give you hope. You really can change your future. I guarantee I have seen bigger mistakes; heck, I probably made bigger mistakes.
All you need to do right now is to get mad. Decide that this is not how you want to live and definitely, not how you want to teach your children to live. Make the commitment to Wage Peace for yourself and your family.
I loved this recent tweet by DaveRamsey, this is how you do it! “Get all Braveheart on your debt. Go crazy, paint yourself blue and charge into the chaos with fierceness.”
If you have successfully waged peace in your home but you have family or friends that have not, send them this post. Preface it with your story; give them the gift of hope.
If you know you need to do better but are not sure what to do, contact me and I’d be happy to get you started.
People who do not have financial peace do not realize the veil of stress that is draped over them. Security is not only being able to survive if you lose your job or get sick. It is being able to be charitable without dipping into your grocery money, it is knowing you can fly to visit a sick, needy relative at a moment’s notice. It is the removal of the stress that is ever present when you are in financial trouble, it makes you happy!