I had an awareness that struck me
like lightening today!!!
Let me back track a little.
You might or might not remember the story of Manasseh and Ephraim. They were Joseph’s [from the bible]
boys. When his father was about to die
he took them to receive the family blessing of inheritance. As they entered the room Joseph set the boys
in their birth order, which was Manasseh and Ephraim. This way Manasseh would receive the first
born blessing then Ephraim would receive the second born blessing. To Joseph’s
surprise his father crossed his hands and reversed the order of their blessings. Joseph was sure something was wrong and tried
to correct his father’s hands. He father
said – no this is the way it should be.
Why would Jacob change the birth order?
This is where it gets interesting. Ephraim’s name means “Double Blessing” and
Manasseh means “Forgetful”. It could be
said another way Ephraim means “feast” and Manasseh means “famine” with the
ability forget it is a famine, which could mean time to rise above the “famine”
time in life and see the good.
Now the order would not be Famine first and
then Feast
But
Double Feast first to cover the “Famine” time
in life and let the “Famine” be forgotten.
I see this as the Feast Famine Cycle put in place. By having the “Double Blessing” first you can
then handle the “Famine Time” and could even “Forget” there was a famine.
As I said I have been asking for that
blessing for years.
I have called it
“Have what we need before we need it blessing”.
I have viewed this concept as a lesson to be applied in
life. Through the years when I had on hand an item and then a need came for the item. I would say "look we have what we needed before we needed". It had become a game of success for us.
Due to the approaching retirement of my husband, I have stepped up my
preparation approaches.
I know there will be bumps during the transition to
retirement. I am aware we will make
mistakes in our choices as well. We just
want to cut the mistakes down to a minimum.
We have several excellent retirements which have been blended with
Social Security. Our life took us
through many a famine time and not always with the Double Blessing first. We knew firsthand the sorrow of living
without preparation of a Double Blessing.
Here is how the retirement plan is working:
Step 1 –
Refinanced house to a lower interest rate with a cash back loan. My husband is a veteran so that gave us an
excellent opportunity to do that. Because of how our life played out we do not
have a “free and clear” house. So this
was our best approach for the moment.
Step 2 – Use the
Cash from the refinance:
·
Pay down credit card debt
·
Stock the pantry with 6 months to a year of
food. We started double stocking the pantry up to 6 month level and hopefully to a
1 year level of food and supplies. This
way if one of us get sick or has a surgery or whatever, which all happens at
our age, we would have plenty to carry us through. Plus it saves money buying in bulk and when
prices are lower. Everything seems to
just keep going up.
·
Yes we had asked for the blessing, yes we had
been whittling down the credit cards and paid off cars over the last couple of
years.
· We have
looked for opportunities like becoming involved in several Direct Sales
Companies such as Thrive Live. Oh here
is our Thrive Life web site. http://www.thrivelife.com/justicepantry
.
I
have been reading a lot of Blogs on preparedness and Food Storage and Home
Store lately. I like the idea of a “Home Store”. In the process I stumbled over a plan that
helps set the budget in a positive mode.
It is paying your monthly bills ahead.
Now
when I had my surgeries in 2011 I did that.
Every time I went into a surgery I paid the bills for the month
ahead. This way if I died Jesse, my
husband, would not have to face bills for a while. I am not one to use auto payments because if
there is any “hiccup” in the system – my end or societies – there are those
lovely fees!
After
reading this article I realized I wanted us to do this. Then the budget is turned into a “zero based
budget”.
What is that???
It
is where you put every bit of your money into a predetermined category or
envelop if you are not using a spreadsheet.
This way you will not “feel” so flush with cash that you make purchases
that “blow” the budget. J
So
I have added Step 3 to the process.
Step 3 – Pay bills ahead 1 month and
stick to that and have a “zero based budget”.
Today
is when like I said I had an “Affinity Moment” – The discovery of a truth.
By praying for and acting upon the desired “Double Blessing” I can truly have:
“What I need before I need it!”
The Ephraim [Double Blessing] first and the Manasseh
Blessing second [the ability to forget there is a famine/hard time] and in that order!
That was the
new AWARENESS that hit me to live AHEAD not for the present!
So now I am even driven more on my plan of
putting in place all the things I can think of “Before I need them”!
