Holy Lord, my Provider, Jehovah Jireh, today I bring before you my financial needs because you have put me in charge of providing for my family yet you have not opened any doors that would place us in financial security. Rather, you have allowed the enemy to steel both our health and our wealth. And my business was criminally destroyed. I have found work, but my children are too young to work. My wife is disabled and can't work. Rather, I have to care for and nurture her and the children. So for me to take a second job is clearly not your will for me. Lord, if you would grant me a better job maybe I could make ends meet. But because I ran my own business I don't have a steady work history. And because my mind is on my family, I find it so difficult to sell myself in a job interview for management. You know how I failed in finding any better work than I have. Yet you have provided through much charitable giving by individuals and the church as an answer to prayer. But this is not how things should be. I should be giving to the community you died for rather than receiving. Prosper me, Lord, so that I may help prosper others materially and spiritually. I lay before you our family budget, Lord.

Monthly Revenue
$1,500 - LabCorp. Gross Pay @ $9.06/hour

Deductions
$290 - Tax @20%
$332 - Insurance Plan
$52 - Dental Plan
$9 - Optical Plan
$75 - Personal Use of Company Car
$52 - Other Deductions
$810 - Total Deductions

$690 - Net Monthly Pay @ Lab Corp.

Monthly Expenses
$150 - Tithe
$142 - Insurance
$97 - Bell South
$46 - AT&T Wireless
$11 - Joi Internet
$770 - Rent
$410 - GMAC Car Payment
$150 - Car Maintenance/Expenses
$5 - AAA
$100 - Gas
$100 - Children School Activities
$50 - Dry Cleaning
$160 - FPL
$500 - Groceries
$100 - Clothing
$100 - Gifts & Offerings
$100 - Dining Out
$100 - Trips & Entertainment
$1,000 - Lisa's Occupational Therapy not covered by Medicaid
$35 - Seacoast Utility/Water
$4226 - Total Monthly Expenses

$3,536 - Monthly Shortfall. Lord, this bottom line is what we need to work with.

Reducing Expenses
I have considered ways to reduce expense. GMAC finances were all paid in advance so selling the car doesn't work. It has negative equity. We owe about $8000 still but the car's value with 107,000 miles is very small. We will have to pay money we don't have just to get rid of it. All payments now are going into principle owed. So we may as well just keep it. Lisa needs transportation to get work anyway. I included the dry cleaning as high as it is because between her and me this is just how much it comes to. I can't reduce clothing expense because Lisa occasionally buys clothes without asking my permission. Dining out is my fault. I could reduce this, but it includes Pizza and Lunches while I'm at work and would require lifestyle changes I constantly struggle with. It is heartless to tell the children they can't go on field trips, etc. Maybe we could reduce that a little but there is always something new to pay for. The Bell South bill may go down to $50 now that we no longer have DSL. Trips & Entertainment I am willing to eliminate but Lisa and the family are constantly doing battle with me on it and they always win the fights. Lisa wants to pay cash for her therapy for the next three months until my insurance plan starts covering it. I can't blame her. I just trust in you, Lord, and let it go. You have always provided.

Increasing Income
We can't get rid of the second car or Lisa will be locked up in the house. I thank you that she can drive again and maybe find work. But she will need an income that has net pay six times as high as my own. She had it before her stroke but was laid off even while healthy. She used to type 80 WPM but now has to type with just one hand. I don't know what Goodwill can do for her. Chickie used to sort plastic for $1.70/hour. This is the impression I have of it. Still, she will be looking into it. And we are not giving up. I can build web sites but I have to find new accounts and find time to finish my prototypes. So that can't be immediate. Lisa gets Stafford Loans which help keep us afloat while she attends school, maybe $700/month on average, but this is just accumulating debt. I could do the same and maybe double our cash inflow. I could work towards an MBA degreee, Lord. But I don't know whether I have the academic averages I need from my youth to qualify. Besides, that income won't come for quite a number of years.

Lifestyle
Lord you may well have called us to poverty while in this world. The picture here takes me from struggle to homelessness. It is unacceptible. Yet if I take action to work another job I will never see my family. I can't consider it an "option" to take a better paying job without first finding an opportunity. Therefore, I request that you send me and Lisa YOUR opportunities. Labcorp thinks they are paying a "competitive" wage. This only means that there are hundreds of thousands of others, millions, who are in the same dilemma that I find myself in. Show me how to live with less without having to struggle with my family to accomplish it. We are already living without cable TV and without a pet. We are willing to do with less. Show us how and give us willing spirits. Let there be harmony and unity in my home. Grant us peace. I enter before your throne, O King, with thanksgiving in my heart, worrying about nothing, because I know you are in full control of my life. You convict me by the image of the disciples worrying when you slept in the boat. It may seem like you are asleep sometimes, that our lives are in danger. But you are there to help. You are my God. Your eye is on the sparrow. You have not forgotten me. You put me in charge of this family. You will provide for our needs. Show me the way, Lord. You multiplied the loaves and the fishes, which is all that I have with my limited skills and resources. I thank you for your anointing on my life with your grace.

Amen.