Happy Monday, Friends! Today is, among a few things: National Drink Wine Day, President’s Day AND my big brother’s 40th birthday! Which is so incredibly hard to believe… 40 years… I remember when my parents turned 40, and to be in that camp so many years later seems so surreal. But alas, we are here and I’m hoping my brother has been celebrated today by those closest to him!

Now, I wanted to share with you today about my most recent 8 pages book. Last fall, Andrew and I had the privilege of going to a conference where one of the speakers strongly encouraged the audience to be reading every single day. At least 8 pages.

Confession, I am NOT a reader. I don’t enjoy sitting still, which you generally have to do to read. I like to be active, to be moving, so this challenge really was like a dare to me. Could I do it? Sure. Would I do it? er. maybe.

Andrew and I accepted the challenge when we got back home from that little conference and we’ve been reading 8 pages almost every night since then. I will admit that some nights we get to bed too late or are just plain exhausted, and we skip, but we try our best to make this a priority at night. We’re going for good/great, not perfection.

I have been choosing books that push me both spiritually and personally and my most recent book was Your Money, Your Marriage. I honestly cannot even recall how I found this book, or why exactly I wanted to read it, but nonetheless it proved to be a great book. Encouraging couples to not only commit to loyalty within their marriages, but also within the context of their finances.
I’m going to detour for just a sec, so bear with me. If I were to take a poll today of my readers, how many of you have made a purchase in the last 48 hours that your spouse doesn’t know about?

Guilty.

One section of the book, that I actually highlighted reads like this,

When you buy whatever you want to buy, whenever you want to buy it, and your spouse does the same thing, you end up spending more than you make. When you detest the idea of a budget because it controls what you can and can’t do, you miss the mark for a secure financial future every single time. The illusion of being in control leads to the exact opposite when it comes to your money and your marriage. You wind up with your finances and relationship careening out of control.

I don’t know if y’all remember a few years ago I wrote a post about the word budget being a bad word. I’ve never liked a budget. I’ve never wanted to be constrained by it. But the night I read this paragraph above, I was slapped in the face. And quite honestly, I felt overly convicted, remorseful and embarrassed. I flagged it in the book so that I could come back and read it again {and again, and again…} after the book was finished.

I think my purpose in sharing this excerpt and book with you is that it reminded me that when Andrew and I became a union, we became one. Our hearts joined, our homes joined, our finances joined…and while we do all the things of married couples that show we are ONE, our finances haven’t been that way. So if this is a challenge to you as it was to me, make some small changes. Realize that the things you do in secret don’t help your marriage or your finances.

Back to the 8 pages…
I’m sure many of you read so much more than I do, and that is super. I applaud you! If you don’t even read the mere 8 pages that I’ve started reading, I would like to extend the challenge to you. Put down the phone or the remote a little earlier than ‘normal’. Get into your cozy bed, or couch or chair and find yourself a really good book. Whether you like fiction, historical, self-help or even just your Bible. Reading has so many benefits, that I’ve even experienced in the few short months that I’ve been doing my 8 pages: stress reduction, more/better sleep, better memory, cheap entertainment {library books are FREEEE!}.

I’m not quite sure what my next good read will be, but if the anticipation is killing you, and you’d like to follow along in my next 8 pages, follow me on Instagram – I will often post an excerpt from my nights’ reading in my stories! Until next time…