Today's Crown True Financial Freedom Story comes from an Italian Crown friend whom the Lord taught to be content in all things and teach his children the same. Enjoy...
"My name is Waldinei, my wife is Luciany and we have 3 children: Isabela, Letícia and Gabriel. We moved to Pompéia in January of 2002, up to our ears in debt that we had had for many years.
God really worked miracles in our lives. We were unemployed and when we arrived in Pompéia, I was invited to work in shipping at the National Office of the Nova Shalom Association and Luciany was invited to teach at the school. We heard about the Crown course but we thought we would only be able to take it the following year. But God knew our needs. We were invited to be in the first group.
We have lived on the basis of post dated checks, loans and investing in deals that never worked out. The verse that says “I have learned to be content in every situation, I know how to be honored and humiliated,” was never a reality in my life. I was dominated by ambition because the desire to become rich was very strong in my life. I never planned anything, did whatever I felt like doing without considering the consequences and without accepting advice.
After studying the Biblical principles presented in the CROWN small group study, my mind and heart were opened for the beginning of a transformation. For the first time in our lives, we decided to get out of debt and never charge anything. We are paying off all of our debts one by one.
We had a car that had been financed and we decided to return the car to the place we bought it. The funny thing was that no one wanted to take it back because they all thought it strange that someone would decide to take the loss of all the payments already made in order to get out of the remaining debt.
Without the car, my wife began to go to work by bicycle (borrowed) and one dark morning, on the way to work in the cold, the Lord spoke to her heart that in the midst of all her difficulties, He wanted to teach her as he had the apostle Paul who wrote, I have learned to be content in each and every situation...”
God taught us that he supplies all of our needs, but our dreams and the acquisition of superfluous things will come about if it is His will. And this demonstrates how much the Lord Jesus wants us to trust in and depend on him.
We have taught our children to depend on God, praying for the needs to be met and we are teaching them to manage their money according to God’s patterns. They are learning to give, save and spend.
The lesson that impacted my life the most was the one on Eternity. I discovered that being rich and getting everything that I wanted would get me nowhere because this life is so very short!"
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