God's Naughty and Nice List

I'm on Day 2 of the "Bible in 90 Days" plan. I read Genesis 17 - 28, roughly. One of awesome things about Genesis is all the stories of great faith. I read so much of the Bible and think "if I were in their shoes I would not have done that." Why? Why wouldn't I have acted in faith and obedience? Has God ever let me down when I did act in faith? Why am I so scared to trust the creator of the universe? The hardest things I have done in faith have ended up having the greatest and best effects on my life. I should be asking God to give me challenges so that he can bless my life more!

Take Abraham for example. God decided to bless him and make him the father of nations (and Jesus!) because of his faith and righteousness. God also decided to tell him about the plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because he didn't want to hide what he was doing from the father of nations. Seriously! God didn't want to go behind Abraham's back as a direct result of his faith and righteousness (Gen. 18). And then, God decide to spare Abraham's nephew Lot on Abraham's account. Not only that, but it sounds like angels whisked Lot and his immediate family out of town when they hesitated to go on their own (Gen 19). Because of Abraham's faith, the lives of his family were saved, even when they did not have faith. Every time I read the act of faith and think "I would never do that" and need to realize when I read the reward and blessing afterward that I would never have that. And frankly, that's sad.

So many plans

We are postponing buying a house, for reasons I will disclose once they become completely official. Suffice it to say that we will hopefully be in a much better place to buy in a year and we have much better options happening now. We're looking for a new (bigger) apartment or condo to rent, so if you know of a good one, let me know!  We are both completely happy with this turn of events though, and we learned a lot by starting the house buying process. For one, we learned how important it is to check your credit report often! You get one free credit report from each reporting agency each year. If you order one every four months and rotate which one you order from, then you can keep an eye on your credit throughout the year. This way you can nip errors in the bud, and not 2 years later like we did with ours. Also, we learned some parameters that lending companies require before letting you buy their money from them. For example, you have to have worked in your field for a minimum of two years. Bad news for people like me that enjoy job hopping. They couldn't even count my income in getting us approved. Apparently they were not impressed by my ability to find so many jobs. Also, you cannot owe more money to people than you make in a year. This was not an issue for us, thanks to Dave Ramsey, but it was interesting to note. I am keeping a much better eye on our bank accounts now. I always think, now what would our mortgage guy say if he saw this. It makes banking more interesting.

In other news, I may be helping someone set up a business selling art. For any of you small business gurus, selling online gurus, or shopping online gurus, I would love imput! What has worked for you, what hasn't? What sites do you love to shop at? What sites do you hate to shop at? Why? What programs have helped you succeed, or were a total waste of your time? I would love any and all input.

It's almost the weekend, I hope it's restful and awesome.