Gratitude Friday Kick off !!

As everyone here (all 2 of you) knows Divine and Debt Free is a new site. My goal here is to educate and share more personal experiences about my journey to debt freedom. One thing I love about this new site is being able to tie my every day life back to finances and inspire others. If I can inspire one person or educate them, I am a happy camper.

I am not a tradition starter but I certainly can follow em (the good ones). One particular tradition thats becoming contagious is GRATITUDE FRIDAYS over at the comebackgirl.com. Every Friday we speak about something or "somethings" we are grateful for. So much negativity is focused on during the week a lot of times and I do believe by speaking out loud how thankful you are can set the tone for more positive things to come!! So I will kick off this first gratitude Friday with what I am thankful for TAHDAY!

I must say it was one of the coolest days I have had to date and I have had a LOT of cool days this year. I was at work doing my usual (NOTHING) just kidding. I was working on sending out letters and answering incoming calls. THE PHONE RINGS "REGISTRATION THIS IS MIKKI HOW CAN I HELP YOU" as usual. The lady starts going in about how she needs help with her account. Typical call you would think right?? WRONG. My usual response to people is that when you need help filing and figuring numbers you call and accountant not us....

So she goes on to ask me "Is there ONE person that knows EVERYTHING i NEED TO DO TO FIX ALL THIS". (I giggle inside) "UM NO MA'am they don't pay us enough for that" (yes i did say it). But something (the holy spirit) told me to dig a little deeper. So I started asking her what exactly did she need..... Turns out the root of her frustration was due to bill collectors calling her. She said they threatened to put a lean on her house, garnish her income and take her first born child (ok i made that up but im sure they said something to the like). The frustration in her voice was disheartening.

Like I said usually I tell folks to kick a bag of rocks but this was different. What should have been a 5 minute call turned into 2 hours!! Yes I know, I pray I don't get in trouble but I couldn't help myself. I went on explaining to her how to deal with collectors, how to make a budget and how to keep from filing bankruptcy. The information was just spewing out of me and I felt so compelled to encourage this lady and get her to a place where she just stopped worrying. Well I was able to do that (took me a while I know). But the words she spoke to me almost brought tears to my eyes, she said "you know what you are the first person that has been able to help me with all of this, are you an angel? do you really work there?" I couldn't help but laugh. "No ma'am im not an angel but I understand what you are going through as I have been there myself" I ended the conversation letting her know she could call (me with any questions again as long as it didn't take me two hours to answer them) she laughed and assured me she would comply. I told her at the end to have a worry free Christmas and she said " I will now because of you" and it just made my day.

I decided that I was going to send her the TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER BOOK anonymously just for fun. To me it was such a blessing to have been able to encourage someone. I can't even describe how happy it made me. I am grateful that God has brought me through my own financial situation so that I could share my story and help others, thats what its all about.

So what are you Grateful for??