This is the third post in a series. Before you continue, you’ll probably want to click here to read the first one and the second one.

Now it’s Monday morning, and I can feel the anxiety building.  I’m eating my cereal, praying, and then an idea pops in my head.  I have a client whose monthly bill averages $1,500 per month.  They’ve been a client forever, and I have a great business relationship with the CEO.  What if I offered them 12 months of service for the price of 10, but only if they paid the entire year’s fee up front?  They have great cash flow. It would be a win-win for everyone.  And then I realize that I have to ask for the money.  I’m not good at that, never have been.  But what other choice do I have?  This is it.  I call the CEO, make an appointment, type up the proposal, and present it to him later that day.  He’s interested, but wants to think about it for a few days.

Tuesday . . . Wednesday . . . Thursday . . . the balance is due on Monday, and I’m running out of days.

Then I get the email.  He agrees to it.  I can pick up the signed proposal and check on Friday morning.  We deposit the check, pay the bill, and just look at each other in silence.  We just lived a miracle.  We just paid off $20,000 in ten days.  Whoa.

And now Rex is convinced.  He still thinks I’m a little crazy, but he can’t even dispute that this is beyond coincidence.  As we’re sitting in church together on Sunday, we see a promotion for a Dave Ramsey course.  Confident that we’re being led, we sign up and start attending the following week.  Embarrassed that we’re two CPA’s admitting that we don’t have it all together financially, we go anyway.  We sit through the first course, we do the exercises, and we start to talk – talking about money and finances in a way we never have in three years of marriage.  We start filling out the forms and assessing our situation.  The data is sobering, even humiliating, but it feels good to be working together.  By the third week, we’re closer than we’ve ever been as a couple.  And we have faith.  We know we’ve already seen one miracle, and we know it can only get better from here.

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