kylegilbert

For over a decade now, I’ve managed my finances through an envelope system (dividing income into budgeted spending categories), and I’ve found it to be very helpful – keeping us out of debt, helping us to spend within our income, and helping Keri and I not fight about money.  Unfortunately, there aren’t many solutions out there that make it easy to do while also using credit and debit cards (we pay off the balance each month).  I started out using a spreadsheet, but switched to software about eight years ago.  It worked great at the time, but it still required several hours of work each week to stay current.

A couple of months ago, I started searching for a replacement to my out-of-date software.  I began with Quicken and a few others, but it was challenging to get them to really use an envelope system.

Then, about three weeks ago, I stumbled upon a system called Mvelopes that is absolutely terrific.

• It’s web-based, so I don’t have to worry about crashes or updates.
• It’s very easy to set up and use.
• It connects to my bank accounts and saves me the effort of having to manually enter expenditures.

It’s not cheap, but there’s a free trial.  For the time this is saving me each week, it’s worth the money.

If you have challenges keeping up with your money and sticking to a budget, you really should give this a try.

Here are some videos that show you how it works.

And, lastly, before you ask:  No, I’m not getting any kind of kickback for this post.    I’m just putting this on here with the hope that it will be a useful resource for others like it has been for me.

This is a hilarious video, and it reminded me to share the news that a great online Scripture resource called YouVersion has recently been redesigned and is now out of beta. If you haven’t seen it already, you really need to check it out. (If you’ve been under a rock, they also have great free applications for the iPhone and BlackBerry.)

I’ve had a pretty bad attitude most of the day, and I think it had something to do with my shoes.  You see, I tried to wear flip flops today, and as I’ve noted before, I’ve got some issues with my feet.  I love the openness, but the strap between my toes drove me nuts all day (not to mention all the flopping, and almost having them fall off on the stairs).  I’m not sure I’m going to make it.

Josh tells me that I’ve got to give them a week.  We’ll see.

My three-year-old daughter has an amazing imagination.  She demonstrates it in different ways, but for several months now, she’s been telling us about her imaginary friends.  The best part is that the stories are incredibly detailed – what they’re doing, their likes and dislikes, and what they want to be when they grow up.

A few days ago, she and Keri were talking about Yuki (that’s one of her imaginary friends – most of the time, the stories are about Ollie and Yuki, but there are others too).  My daughter told Keri that Yuki “worships other gods.”  Keri used it as an opportunity to talk to her about God’s commandment that we not worship false Gods.

Today, my daughter told Keri that she talked to Yuki about it:

“I told Yuki about the real God… that he shouldn’t worship gods that can’t see or hear.  So now he knows.

So Jesus changed his heart, and now he worships the real God.  Isn’t that great?!”

So when Keri called me on the phone, she said, “I think Yuki got saved today.”

As funny as this is, it’s interesting to see the way that our daughter is thinking through and applying the stories we tell her.  This seems to be a combination of her Bible story book about Elijah and the priests of Baal, the story of Zacchaeus and his heart transformation, and the stories I’ve told her about people at church whose hearts have been changed by God.

If you’re a parent or ever plan to be a parent, what is your biggest dream for your kids? What aspiration is at the top when you consider their futures? Does it involve their ability in sports or academics? Is it related to their talents or social skills? Do you hope they will make a lot of money? Is it something based on your own failings?

As I’ve thought about this, I’ve come to a very strong personal conclusion. I’ve made plenty of mistakes as a parent, but there are two things about which I want my kids to be perfectly certain:

1. More than anything else, I want them to live for the glory of God – fully committed to Jesus Christ.
2. No matter what, I love them and treasure them with all of my heart.

You see, when it comes to these two things, I don’t want my kids to have to guess.

So to make that happen, here are a few items that I’m implementing:

• Mentioning these things in passing as we hang out and play together.
• Teaching the stories of Scripture to my kids and helping them to enjoy the Bible.
• Reinforcing these things when we pray together.
• Talking about these things in more detail when I can tell that their hearts are open and attentive.

Just in case I haven’t said it recently – I love my job. I get to work with amazing people and work on fun projects.

One huge project that’s been slowly coming together over the past few months is Faith Promise’s Internet Campus. Basically, it’s video of the worship service, a virtual lobby area where people can interact through chat, and a place where people can be ministered to through one-on-one prayer. I know there will be skeptics, but I believe God will use it to spread His fame and bring people to faith in Him.

Well, after a lot of work and effort (Brad Roberts has again played a huge role in this endeavor), we’re launching the iCampus this weekend, 4/12/09, with rebroadcasts of Sacred Storm at 3 & 8 pm Eastern Time. Beginning 4/19/09, we’ll begin broadcasting each Sunday morning at 10 am Eastern Time.

What’s really cool is that like our physical campus, this ministry is going to require the help of volunteers. We need greeters in the chat area to welcome people and build relationships, and we need prayer operators who are ready to share the gospel, encourage people, and lift people in prayer.

Please join me in praying for people all over the world who will be exposed to God’s Truth and love through our Internet Campus.

I never would have guessed I’d be writing this, but I’m beginning to prefer reading from my iPhone over reading a paper book.  For the past six months or so, I’ve done all my devotional Bible reading from the YouVersion Bible App, and I just finished reading my second book on the iPhone Kindle App (BTW, it was Tribes by Seth Godin – an amazing little book on leadership).

I think I like it so much because:

• I’ve always got my book with me since it’s on my phone
• the backlight is really nice – I can easily read in the dark
• I can have a new book on my phone within minutes of placing my order in the Amazon Kindle store
• It’s more eco-friendly
• I could be wrong, but it seems like there is less strain on my eyes

Makes me think that there will probably be a day soon when everybody does most of their reading on a handheld device.

I’ve been wanting to post something about my game of disc golf with Josh last week, but I’ve been at a bit of a loss of how to put the range of emotions into words.  It was Josh’s first time to ever play and my first time to play in Tennessee.  Though it was small, the course was very well kept.  And like always, there was great joy in being outdoors and walking the course with a close friend.

Outside of that, there were a couple of things that made our game interesting.  First of all (and I’ll leave out the details), I was hit with a sudden upset stomach and barely made it to a port-o-potty before it was too late (never thought I’d ever be so happy to see one of those).  Also, when we got back to the car, Josh realized that his Blackberry Storm was missing.  These are the photos of where we found it after searching in the trees in a couple of places.

This is powerful:

Over the past couple of years, I’ve faced some painful failures.  I poured my heart into a ministry, and I watched it crumble before my eyes.  Despite my best efforts, things did not go as hoped.  People (including myself) walked away disappointed.  And in the end, I really began to question a lot of things.

God, am I just in the way of your ministry?  Do you really have a plan for me?

Through the brokenness, I began to discover that there is a God who delights in our weakness.  He is quite comfortable with us coming to the end of ourselves and facing our fears.

But this time, when I looked at my failure, I realized there was something on the other side.  Failure is a doorway to greater things.

Seth Godin, in his book Tribes, puts it this way, “[They] have actively talked themselves out of the fear.  I mean, the fear is still there, but it’s drowned out by a different story….  The only thing holding you back is your own fear.”

God is teaching me this lesson in a dozen ways at the same time, but especially  through the great leaders around me at Faith Promise.  From what I can tell, I’m beginning to make some solid progress.  I’m turning over a new leaf.  I’m ready to fail, because I realize that failure is a part of making progress.