Work. School. Cars. Debt. These few words may seem simple, but they consume most of my time anymore. What do they all have in common? Money. I myself, and the world as a whole, have become so dependent on money. It is just too easy to get caught up in the hype that a "stack of cash" gives you until you suddenly find yourself out on your own and without those funds.
What does this have to do with you? Everything. Sadly, money affects us all. I am starting my third year of college, and my first year at a four year university. This is my first year paying for all of my school with out some kind of scholarship to rid me of my bill. Before now, my ACT score and ability to write a letter got me all the money I needed to get through school. Now it's different. Now my ACT doesn't stand out. My writing is average. I am just another ID number on the list; just another name with a (not so) slowly increasing bill attached to it. I am a mere twenty years old and I am already thousands of dollars in debt.
Now, this seems extreme. And, in some ways, it is. However, I also consider myself lucky. I get to experience something that not everyone can. I get to grow. I get to spare my parents the cost of putting me through years of schooling, which one day i WILL be able to pay off on my own. I get to learn about budgeting. I get to realize that, while money is good, it isn't everything.
There are people who are lucky in a different way than I am. There are students who don't see a penny of their school payment. People who get to drive out of a dealership with a new car, title in hand. Those who get weekly cash or gifts from their parents.
My family hasn't ever had unlimited funds. We aren't the most wealthy people in the world. When I was young, I mostly enjoyed one day trips to all the free sites in St. Louis. Those were my vacations. In my small eyes, you could not have given me a better trip. Still to this day, I remember loving every second of it. It was not until I was older that I learned that people actually went on week long, expensive getaways every year. It made me question myself and all that I had known growing up. I became insecure about my finances because of the amazing stories people around me told about other countries, pictures of the nice things they continually received, or the lack of debt looming over their heads because someone else had taken care of their finance in life. I began to wonder why my family and I weren't given that. Then, I read something from Hebrews that stood out to me. "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'never will I leave you, never will I forsake you'" (Hebrews 13:5 if you're curious).
Suddenly, I remembered that money doesn't matter in the grand scheme of life. I don't need it. God is what is going to get me through school. Through work. Through a car payment. Even through debt. God isn't going anywhere. So, to the ones who were a different kind of lucky, I say one thing: I hope you can learn the real value of money. Appreciate what you have been given. Learn what money really means. What it is. What it isn't. And as for me, I don't have money. I won't for a few years, and that's okay with me. Because there's something people continually fail to understand about money: it doesn't matter.
