God giveth and God taketh away

My Sister-in-Law Sarah just wrote a post as a practise run of a talk she'll be giving regarding saving money for a family and surviving off of just one pay cheque.
While attempting to respond in her comment box, I realized I was composing a blog of my own! So, I've decided to write out the thoughts that popped up while reading Sarah's blog:

As a newly converted tightwad, I'm looking forward to hear Sarah's advice about saving money! I've been searching for a good guide for uni students on how to do the same...

As for Sarah's example couple:

"It’s an all too common tale: boy and girl meet at private, pricey Christian college. They are both from stable middle class homes which means they’ve taken out a good chunk of change to finance their educations. Between them both they’ve accrued about $60,000 worth of debt and graduate only to enter into the teaching and pastoral fields. After they marry, between her teacher’s salary and his youth pastor salary, they’re barely able to pay the bills. They also probably succumb to the pressure to go to graduate school so within the next couple of years they end up completely selling their souls to Sallie Mae. Smack on some credit card debt, two car payments, and some economic naiveté and you’ve got a financially stressful situation. As soon as baby comes along, the possibility for mom or dad to stay at home just isn’t a reality. So, the young couple simply accrues more debt, even though they are both working full time because they have sitter costs, doctor co-pays, and mountains of disposable diapers."

This made me think how different my life might be if I HAD done the pricey christian college thing.

At the time, when there was no money to be had, and I couldn't afford to go, I was annoyed with God, wondering why he'd kept me from continuing my christian education. Now,I'm realizing he had a different plan for me. I had the chance to grow in my faith and be nurtured by teachers who cared and who promoted my Christianity while in high school. That instead of continuing to expand in that, let's face it 'bubble of faith', God wanted to challenge me. So off to secular University I went, and yes, its a daily challenge not having more than two people understand why I believe what I do, and being the odd man out because I have some need to cling to 'out of date morals'. I struggle with my beliefs being questioned during lectures; I force myself to not storm out of classrooms where the teacher encourages the out right trashing of the Christian faith. I ignore the stares when I can pull Bible verses out of thin air when discussing a novel that centres on faith.
It has been very difficult to drag myself to non-mandatory(at least by the school) church on Sunday mornings.
Yet I can also see what God intended for me when he dropped me in freezing cold Ottawa.

1) I have the opportunity to minister to people all the time, from my friends to my classmates, even my residents. People see that I act a little differently, and question it. They question my random acts of kindness, they question my need to not break rules, they question my cross and key necklace, my need to remain in control of who I am and not give in to peer pressure. Being here forces me to either step up to the plate, or stay on the bench. I don't get the option of being lukewarm in my faith. I constantly have to defend against attacks, but it only strengthens my will and God's plan for me.

2)Because I could only afford to go to school here, and I have struggled to make enough money to pay for my cheap University tuition, I really appreciate the hard work its taken to pay for it! BUT most importantly, I will manage to graduate from teacher's college DEBT FREE. Not one cent owed!
So, though I may have missed out on some deeper chance at growth in my faith, I think God saw I wouldn't be able to handle being that example couple, so much in debt, and drowning in payments. While now I have to be careful with every penny, and maybe can't use my OSAP money to buy a gorgeous new pair of leather boots that are calling my name, I know I'll be taken care of once I leave school. I'll have a big step ahead of a lot of other newly graduating students.