God is truly so good isn’t He?  He continuously shows up in ways that go beyond anything I could ever imagine.  There are so many occurrences of this in my family’s lives including our journey towards financial peace.  

A few years ago, I was struggling in a lot of different ways.  These struggles were internal and personal but extremely difficult and what made them harder was that I tried to handle them all on my own.  As you can probably imagine, this also didn’t fare well for my marriage.  Our communication suffered and we found ourselves constantly battling about our financial situation or at least the lack of communication surrounding it.  

Then one day, I read a book by Dave Ramsey called the Complete Guide to Money.  I immediately saw everything around our marriage and money with a completely clear lens and fresh perspective.  I talked with Alyssa about what I had been reading and although she was somewhat skeptical, she remained open to learning more about it.  We then sought out Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course and together we spent the next few weeks learning about the 7 financial baby steps and the reasoning for following them in their specific order.  

We began to understand finances in a whole new way and we went from living paycheck to paycheck while living a very frugal lifestyle, to realizing that we had more money than we thought.  We just needed to be more intentional with every dollar that we spent. 

The first step, and probably the most important one, was that we started a joint bank account and began to treat our income as one.  This seriously changed everything.  It changed our finances and it forever changed our marriage.  We never had to worry again about who is taking care of what bills or who is buying what because we were a team.  As we should have been from day 1. But we had a mound of debt to get rid of before we could feel free.  We had car loans, student loans, medical bills, and more.  

However, as soon as we started being intentional with our money, we learned that we were overspending on groceries and food because we were buying what we thought we wanted or needed instead of actually knowing what we needed.  From then on, we basically only bought the exact food we would need for the meals we had pre-planned to make and very rarely did we actually veer from our plan. 

Once we figured that out, we re-worked our budget.  We then found out that once the food was bought and the minimum payment of our bills were paid, we had money left over at the end of the month.  This led us to making another decision that changed everything for us.  Alyssa was able to take a pay cut and start working remotely from home as opposed to working outside of the home while a daycare raised our kids.  Something that would have seemed absolutely unfathomable just a week before.  Which also opened the door to us increasing the size of our family.  

Then a couple of years later, we were able to take another leap of faith and I was able to follow God’s path for me to enter the ministry field.  All while still tackling this mound of debt that we had.  I’m excited to share now that as of July 15th, 2024 we got to celebrate our completion of baby step 2 and becoming a debt free family (Outside of our mortgage, as that’s baby step 6). 

This journey started in January of 2021 when we had a somewhat struggling marriage, working jobs we didn’t love, and had 1 child who spent so much of her time in daycare. But now in 2024; our marriage is thriving, we both have much better work situations, we have 3 kids with one more on the way and none of them have to be in daycare.  

We knew that something needed to change and sought God’s plan while faithfully following His steps through the process.  But what He had in store for us, our lives, and for our family was beyond anything we could have ever dreamed or imagined.  We can’t wait to see what He will do next.  

Hello Friends!  

As I sit to write about God's abundance in my life, I find myself in a season of struggle:  Mentally struggling with so much; physically tired and with almost constant foot pain; emotionally hurting as my dad has been sicker than he has ever been.  I am struck by how easy it is to list the hard times, am I right?

I want to tell you about His goodness, mercy, and beauty and I don’t want to taint it with my struggle.  But isn't that why His love and mercy amazes—and sometimes even perplexes us?  We are sinners and He loves us.  We get down, even though He has given us so much.   We are negative even though His mercy abounds.  I would’ve given up on me already, but He doesn’t, and He won’t.

He has been so good to me, mostly when I didn’t even know it.  When I look back at my life and the times when I didn’t give Him the credit for the goodness I had in my life, I am in awe and completely humbled, therefore making me insanely grateful for all the goodness I have now  (Thank you Celebrate Recovery!).

In 2007, we came to a place of deep grief and deep loss.  Our son was born sleeping on his due date (I hate the word stillborn). He was perfect and beautiful, like a precious gift that I had to give back.  I didn’t understand that at first.  I grieved, I cried, but something happened, most importantly, that I thank God every day for.  I surrendered to Him in my grief.  “God, if you really are who you say you are, I’m going to need you to show up.  I cannot do this on my own.”  I had to say it.   I’d never admitted that I needed anyone before. I never wanted to need anyone in case they left me.  But I said it, “I need you, Lord.”  

He showed up so well for me, friends.  I had to seek Him and seek Him hard.  I spent every morning on my knees in my precious baby’s empty room, reading, learning, and asking Him to help me see the good He plans to do with this deep grief.  He didn’t make me not sad, but He helped me see the good all around me.  He gave me hope.  He gave me eyes to see and ears to hear.  He then showed me that He was the author and creator, the gift giver, of my first two daughters.  He gave us those two gifts even though I took all the credit for their birth and health.  I did a good job at being pregnant and birthing perfect babies.  He showed me how they were gifts from Him and then He showed me how I had to give back my son to understand His love for me.  

Oh, to understand the love the Lord has for us, to feel the weight of His love.   And then, He gifted us again.  Our son, Braden!  What an amazing gift—especially when I understood what a gift he was.  He gave me back my smile.  He gave me JOY in the suffering.  He gave me so much more than I ever knew I wanted.  That, to me is so abundant, so much more than I deserve, and although I would give up any earthly possession to have my Joshua here with me, I wouldn’t trade the awe and love I have for my Savior and Gift Giver for anything in this world.   That is salvation.  That is abundance.  To know the gift of our Creator even though we don’t deserve (and sometimes even recognize) it.  He is my God.  He is my Salvation.  He is my Friend, and I need Him every day. And every day He shows up for me.  

It was May of 1977.  My dog. Oscar, who I rescued when I was 10, died.  My girlfriend of 2 years and I broke up.  I truly felt alone.

It was then I was persuaded to seek out a different path.  I fell to my knees begging Jesus for direction.  I decided to give more of my money to the Church and I promised Him to be more faithful in my walk.  

This is what happened.  

In 1978 I received a call from the mother of my former girlfriend.  She told me about a piece of property across the street from her and strongly suggested to me thatI should buy it.  

The property was 5 wooded acres with an unfinished 4-bedroom house.  The asking price was $15,000.  I took her advice and made the purchase and began finishing what was needed.

In 1980 I was managing an auto supply store in Valparaiso.  I wasn’t feeling all that appreciated by my employers but I was patient and waited for the Lord to act.  

In March of 1980 a new employee was hired to help me with the duties of managing the store.  He was a man more than twice my age [ I was 26 and he was 57] but he had many years of experience in the automotive world.  He had been released [fired] from a rival parts store in town.  

We worked together for a few months when he asked if I ever thought of owning my own store.  He had done some research into buying the rival store from where he was fired.  He thought we could be partners.

God kept working and soon we became partners.  I needed to raise $40,000 to buy into the partnership.  I could borrow $30,000 against my house and another $10.000 from a relative.

The company we bought was about to close its doors.  The IRS and most of their vendors wanted money and they didn’t have the means to pay up.  

On October 1, 1980 we opened the doors with a Small Business Association loan of $140,000 at a whopping 21.5% variable interest rate.  The Loan Manager from our soon to be bank went with my future partner to the SBA in Indianapolis to walk the loan request through the necessary steps.  The loan was approved in 2 days. A record for sure. 

37 years later I sold the business after buying out my partner in 1992.

I look back at how God lived up to Jeremiah 29:11 in my life.  He had a plan and walked me through it using people on my behalf in a way I never thought possible.  A former girlfriend’s mother, a stranger hired by my employers and many other encounters too numerous to mention were all put in place because of my time of need.  He is so faithful.

I continue to give more money and time to the Church.  I am blessed with a wonderful wife of 36 years and a beautiful daughter and 2 grandchildren. I led a male Gospel chorus, the HIMSINGS, for 27 years traveling across the local area and parts of Canada.

 I never felt uneasy about the path I was placed or the money I borrowed for I knew it was all in his plan. 

My life was changed forever and I am eternally grateful for His blessings.  

Sincerely,

John Tillema